by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 13, 2017 | Featured, Munich, Photography, Plane Spotting |
A week ago I was in Munich for a week to participate in the Airbus A350 ‘Roll In’ event and in between gatherings and events, I had the chance to sit on a hill or 2 for a couple of days and catch aircraft coming and going from Munich. Some spotting was challenging due to bad weather so some photos may be a bit gray and wet, but I suffer for my art! 🙂
Being Germany’s 2nd largest airport, ‘MUC’ is home to a variety of traffic that most people will not see at their home base. Everything from local ‘LCC’ birds to exotic African and Mid-Eastern traffic can be spotted on the tarmac, not to mention nearly half the Lufthansa fleet as well!
Not much else to say other than enjoy the photos. More will be coming in the next few days as I sort through them.
Etihad’s A6-EHL departing for Abu Dhabi
Icelandair’s 757 heading for Reykjavik
Lufthansa’s workhorse, the A320. Saw just a ‘few’ of them…
Another of Etihad’s A346s arriving from Abu Dhabi
Freising sets the perfect background for an arriving Lufthansa A340
Lufthansa’s Special Bayern Munich tribute arriving in poor weather….
The biggest bird in Luxair’s fleet……
United aircraft ruined the shot at Terminal 2
Air Canada does the same at Satellite Terminal 2
First light over ‘EDDM’
Singapore’s 777 9V-SNC heads for Singapore
Thai’s 744 being pull to the gate a few hours before departure…..
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 12, 2017 | A340, A350, Airports, Featured, Lufthansa, Munich |
After removing First Class from flights between Munich and Denver on December 2, 2016, Lufthansa is set to bring back their best cabin to the Rocky Mountain destination.
Beginning on May 1, Lufthansa brings back the A346 on the route which allows for First to be back on the timetable. Lufthansa currently flies the A333 on the route which does not offer First Class. Expect this to be in place through at least the Summer timetable.
It would be no surprise if the A350 begins to serve Denver later this year which would once again eliminate First Class since the A350 is not equipped with the ‘F’ cabin.
This change has no impact on the 744 service between Frankfurt and Denver.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 11, 2017 | A350, Featured, Lufthansa, Route Announcements |
Lufthansa has updated their timetable to reflect the A350 taking over flying the route between Munich and Boston.
Beginning March 14, the A350 will begin to fly the route that is currently flown by the A330.
Flight info is as follows:
LH424 departs Munich at 3:55p, arriving in Boston at 6:35p
LH425 departs Boston at 8:20p, arriving in Munich at 9:45a the following morning.
With this announcement, Lufthansa now serves Delhi and Boston with their A350 aircraft.
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 9, 2017 | A350, Featured, Lufthansa |
While in Munich last week, I had the opportunity to finally see the A350 in action for myself during on of her training flights that was used to certify cockpit crew for the new Airbus.
After learning about her schedule, I took a chance that she would be be departing from the north runway at Munich so I made sure to be at the ‘Besucherpark’ observation hill well ahead of her departure time. My gamble paid off and I was offered a front row seat on a perfect day for departures. The sun was new, and a storm had just cleared the area leaving a perfect balance of light and background to capture the beautiful aircraft.
Not much else to say about it except enjoy the following pictures. She’ll become more and more common as she enters service next week to Delhi and over the coming months will be joined by 9 other sisters who’ll all be based in ‘MUC’.
Related:
The Lady In ‘Blau’
Lufthansa’s A350 debuts a new Economy Cabin
by Lufthansa Flyer | Feb 6, 2017 | A350, Economy Class, Featured, Lufthansa, Passenger Experience |
During my trip to Munich for the A350 Roll In Event I had a chance to tour the aircraft’s interior and got my first close up of Lufthansa’s new Economy cabin that will be featured on the A350.
The changes are not subtle when compared to the most recent iterations of the typical Lufthansa Economy cabin. The biggest difference that will strike passengers immediately when they board will be the color scheme. Lufthansa has gone to great lengths to improve the ambiance of this 224 seat Economy cabin, featuring new color schemes and lighting technology. Not to mention, the new IFE system provides passengers with fantastic on-board entertainment.
First, let me show you the new interior. As I mentioned above, the color scheme is what draws the most initial attention. You’ll see that Lufthansa intentionally shaded the seats from darker seats along the windows to lighter colored seats in the center of the cabin. This was done to create an optical effect to help the cabin appear larger than it is. You’ll notice that in these shots:
You’ll notice the change of tint from the darker seat along the window, to the very light colored seat in center of the middle section. This was designed intentionally to give the cabin a sense of width and roominess.
The darker outer seats……
Perhaps the biggest improvement that comes with the A350 is the IFE system that the Economy class cabin will enjoy. Based on the Panasonic EX3 system, passengers will now be treated to the largest display ever to be installed on a Lufthansa Economy class seat. With this new system, passengers will be able to access upwards of 100 Movies, 200 TV shows and hundreds of Music and other entertainment options (games, reference, etc).
As I wrote in this post, this new IFE system will also allow passengers to pre-plan their viewing menu by using an App on their smart device. The ‘Lufthansa Companion App’ allows you to see your flight’s IFE menu up to 6 weeks ahead of your flight and you’ll be able to build your favorites list via the app. Then once on board, you’ll sync your device to your seat-back display and watch the things you wanted to see. With the new IFE system, you’ll also be able to stream the content directly to your smart device as well. Another first for Lufthansa.
Bigger, Better, Faster…..Lufthansa’s new IFE system aboard the A350.
One final special feature found aboard the A350 that will apply all 3 seating options (Economy, Premium Economy, Business) will be the use of special ambient cabin lighting. With this, cabin crew will be able to adjust cabin lighting from a menu of 24 different options. Each geared towards a specific on-board event or time of day.
For example, a ‘Boarding mode’ will feature natural tones of lights along with blue and yellow hints to suggest Lufthansa’s corporate colors. For takeoff, the mode would be set to reduce the brightness of the lights and create a neutral lighting environment. Another example would be the ‘Dining’ mode where passengers would be reminded of what lighting would be like in a restaurant. Sleeping mode would off course darken the cabin, but leave accent lighting on. Wake mode would have a gradual increase in cabin lighting, simulating a gentle sunrise so that passengers can awake naturally instead of being startled by a sharp change in cabin lighting.
From my time aboard the A350, I came away impressed with the strides that Lufthansa has made in making Economy class better. In my opinion, the new IFE system is what makes this Economy cabin so much better than other LH versions. Having a large screen with a retina quality display will help the hours fly by during a flight. We all know that a long haul flight in Economy can bring with it a certain level of stress. However, with the new features that LH has introduced to help passengers, it should make even the longest flights enjoyable.
Related: The Lady in ‘Blau’
