by Lufthansa Flyer | Jun 3, 2015 | Austrian, Featured, Fleet Update |
AUSTRIAN Airlines has announced plans to swap aircraft types to increase capacity and to reduce the fleet’s age.
Beginning in August of this year, OS will begin receiving 17 Embraer 195 aircraft from Lufthansa Cityline who will be migrating to CRJ900s as part of the Eurowings master plan.
A future member of the Austrian fleet…..
The 17 ERJs will phase out the Fokkers currently in the fleet and will dramatically increase capacity. Each ERJ will seat 120 passengers as compared to the 80-100 passengers that each Fokker could carry.
Additionally, the 17 ERJs were manufactured between 2009 and 2012 which in essence makes these planes nearly new as far as OS is concerned. Compare that to the Fokkers who on average are 21 years old. The ERJs also come with the metric of being 17% more efficient than the Fokkers they are replacing.
According to OS, the first ERJ to be delivered in August of this year will be used to help cross-train nearly 200 OS pilots and expectations are that the first ERJ in OS colors will enter passenger service in January 2016.
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 9, 2015 | Boeing, Featured, Fleet Update, Frankfurt, Lufthansa, Munich |
Over the past week Lufthansa Group made 3 separate announcements concerning the fleet, including new orders and an update for existing orders.
The first announcement dealt with SWISS and their decision to order 3 additional 777 aircraft. These 777-300ERs will join the 6 777s already on order from Boeing and will begin to show up in the fleet during 2016. The 777 aircraft will allow SWISS to start retiring a portion of the 15 A340-300 aircraft currently in service.
SWISS now has 9 777-300ER aircraft on order.
Next, Lufthansa provided an update on their A350 order. Beginning at the end of 2016, the first of 25 A350s will start showing up in the fleet with the first handful of the type operating out of Munich and will allow for the gradual phase out of A330 and A340 aircraft. Ultimately Lufthansa will have 25 A350s in the fleet based in Frankfurt and Munich. One outstanding feature of the A350 is the fact that it will only take 3/4 of a gallon of fuel to carry one passenger 62 miles (2.9 liters per 100km). That equates to a 25% increase in fuel efficiency over most new aircraft today AND it’s 30% quieter.
LH’s new A350 will bring a distinct new look to the fleet in Frankfurt and Munich.
To round out the busy week of announcements, SWISS announced that it will be the first operator of the new Bombardier CS series beginning in the first half of 2016. In 2009, SWISS was announced as the launch customer for the type.
SWISS’ new Bombardier CS100
For those of you attending the Paris Air Show, Bombardier will have a CS100 on display in SWISS colors. Bombardier also plans to bring the SWISS CS100 to Zurich after the air show as part of its tour. Hopefully, all of the delays are behind the program and we can finally start seeing these new planes replace the aging Jumbolinos!
by Lufthansa Flyer | May 7, 2015 | Featured, Fleet Update, Lufthansa, Premium Economy |
Lufthansa announced this week that it will delay the Premium Economy retrofit for their 747-400 aircraft until October 1. Initial plans called for the 744 fleet to have been completed by August 11. The LH reservation system has been updated to reflect this change.
Once completed, the 747-400 fleet will operate as a 3-cabin aircraft with the new Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy and will operate on the following routes:
Frankfurt – Boston (Only flight LH420 and LH421)
Frankfurt – Denver
Frankfurt – Mumbai
Frankfurt – Osaka
Frankfurt – Seattle
Frankfurt – Shanghai (Only flight LH732 and LH733)
Frankfurt – Tokyo
Frankfurt – Toronto
Frankfurt – Vancouver
Frankfurt – Washington (Only flight LH416 and LH417)
