by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 11, 2015 | Featured, History, Lufthansa |
59 years ago today, on February 11, 1956, Lufthansa put pen to paper and committed to the purchase of 4 Boeing 707 aircraft. It would be Lufthansa’s first step in advancing their fleet into the Jet Age and there would be no looking back. At that point in time, Boeing was on the -400 series of the 707 and Lufthansa would be the first customer of this latest iteration.
The first of the 707-400s, registered as D-ABOB, was completed in November 1959 and took its first flight on December 18, 1959. It would be delivered to Lufthansa on February 3, 1960 at which point it was christened as ‘Hamburg’.
Over the course of over 25 years, Lufthansa would own and operate 23 707 aircraft. The last Lufthansa 707, D-ABUF (Hannover) was retired on May 7, 1984.
The last ever 707 operated by an airline for scheduled passenger service was flown by Iran’s Saha Airlines until April 2013.
Lufthansa’s First 707, D-ABOB / Hamburg. Courtesy of Piergiuliano Chesi (Wikimedia Commons)
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 2, 2015 | Featured, History, Lufthansa |
39 years ago today, on February 2, 1976, Lufthansa welcomed its first ever Airbus aircraft when an Airbus A300 was delivered to the airline.
The A300 served as a short and medium-haul wide body aircraft on high density routes within Europe, North Africa, Russia, the Middle East, and even to the East Coast of the USA.
Lufthansa would ultimately operate 25 A300s (14 A300-600, 6 A300-B2 and 5 A300-B4 variants) over the course of 33 years, finally retiring the last A300 on July 1, 2009.
Lufthansa A300 in Paris (Courtesy of Christian Volpati / Wikimedia Commons)
Typical Seat Map
by Lufthansa Flyer | Jan 27, 2015 | Featured, History, Lufthansa |
January 27, 1994 marked the day that the first Airbus A321 joined Lufthansa’s fleet. Nicknamed ‘ Finkenwerder’, D-AIRA has been in service ever since and was the first of 63 A321s that would join the fleet over the last 21 years.
The initial order of 20 A321s was delivered between 1994 and 1998 with the last of the batch, D-AIRY, being in delivered on November 4, 1998. Since then, 43 additional A321s have joined the fleet and are all currently in service.
D-AIRA still in action 21 years after entering service……
