Terbang

Bloomberg reports that LH will skip dividend amid plans to spend USD 12 billion on purchases of new planes.

Must be an upcoming small revolution in LH plane fleet.

Any ideas what LH will do??

A350 or B787?? or ??

N1003U

Ju-52s, offered as part of a new self-fly service, in cooperation with Sixt.
Another extension of the "nonstop you" concept...

Unfortunately, there will be heavy surcharges if the machine is not returned to the same airport where it was picked up, with full fuel tanks.

If there is no hurry, the A350 would seem an attractive option. OTOH, Boeing needs to keep their bookings full as well and might offer some attractive deals. It will certainly be interesting to see what LH spends the money on, especially as the trend in fleet size is downward.

FollowTheSun

Well, what's the currently most popular longhaul aircraft?

br0snic

From the LH webpage:
how many A320s family do we need???

FTMucGer

They have been cutting destinations and want to buy more planes? Yes, it will take many years before they will enter into service, but still. Anti cyclical spending, sure. But really? That many?

MichielR

They are for the group, so let the speculation about LX long haul fleet replacement begin, or better, continue...

LETTERBOY

I don't know if I'd be ordering 787s right now.

Madone59

Fingers crossed more 748's! They are just so nice to look at

hamallu

The recommendation to purchase 100 short-haul aircraft is justified. The oldest current A32S flying at LH is an A320, D-AIPA, which was delivered back in 1989 who's MSN is 0069!! That is compared with the upcoming A320, D-AIZP MSN 5487 that will shortly be delivered by the end of the month and will be the first A32S in the LH fleet to be equipped with the new Sharklets. That is a generation gap of over 5000+ other A32S built.

Now just take this into consideration, the new sharklets are estimated to bring c.~4% savings in fuel consumption over the current wing fences of a current spec A320, add that to the overall improvements made to the A320 family over the past 20+ odd years. Plus with the older the aircraft gets, the lower the reliability rate for dispatch and you see that it's about time that batch of early build A320s are better off heading to the scrap yard. Not to mention there are around 35 737s left that are most likely destined to end up at Gary/Chicago Airport to be parted out by 2016 like the rest that already went there.

Also we are talking about a delivery spanning from 2015-2025, 10 years for 100 aircraft generally points to replacements and only slight growth. By 2025, the new build A320s that will be delivered this year will already be 12 years old!

jspira

Link to other coverage of the planned aircraft purchase (in FBT):

Lufthansa to Place $12 Billion Order for 108 Aircraft with Airbus and Boeing

N1003U

Isn't the LH 737 fleet also getting a bit "long in the tooth"? I wonder if it makes sense to replace them with new 737s (which supposedly have some impressive operating economics), or commonize with the larger A32x fleet (which are also much improved over the years...)

moeve

Short haul aircraft tend to have a bit of a shorter life span simply due to the much higher start and landing sequences in their lifespan. The starts and landings are a big factor in the wear end tear on an airframe. Substancially influencing its lifespan or at least the kind or repairs that obviously tend to increase after a certain amount of those. It could be cheaper to replace these planes regularly rather than have the increased maintance after a certain amount of short haul air time. Never mind that this aircraft will transport far more passengers than an average long haul aircraft.

alinghi90

The long-haul order looks like this:
- 6x 777 for LX
- 2x 380 for LH



Link (German only)

gum

I think the seat capacity of the short haul fleet would be very interesting. There are many questions directly connected with this purchase decision:

1.) Will Lufthansa decide for a capacity decrease and therefore "offload" all the 99/119 fares. Is the transition to "Germanwings" for the non-hub European traffic revoked? So the emphasis would be on the A318/319/320 types?
2.) Does LH add a proper subfleet of A320/A321 for the medium-haul destinations with a Non-NEK "J" class? @:-)
3.) Does LH use the opportunity to introduce wide-body aircraft to European destinations (like the Airbus A300 was) or does product management prefer the 3-3 seated one aisle types?

Many questions but no tangible answer yet.

RTW1

In all the speculation..... it would be a good thing to have some insight in when these planes will be delivered. Buying now with a delivery date somewhere in 2025, you know one thing.... the order will be significantly changed before delivery.