Lufthansa Says Goodbye To A350s

Lufthansa will be saying farewell to some of its Airbus A350s as part of Group reshuffling efforts.

The Airbus A350-900s will become part of the future flagship product for fellow Lufthansa Group member and leisure operator Discover Airlines.

The A350-900 will initially be utilised on routes such as those through to Orlando or Windhoek, where, thanks to the additional range, the aircraft will be perfect for longer-range leisure destinations not currently accessible through operational aircraft.

Discover Airlines is targeting the usage of the aircraft to eventually reach markets in South and Central America, Southern Africa, and Southeast Asia in due course.

With the further development and expansion of our fleet – including the planned deployment of the Airbus A350 – we are further strengthening our existing offering, with even more comfort and attractive options for our guests. Additional aircraft, greater range, and a new cabin product will enable us to respond even better to the needs of travelers.

Bernd Bauer, CEO of Discover Airlines

With the arrival of the A350, the airline’s fleet is expected to grow to 40 aircraft by mid-2028, according to current forecasting plans. This growth will be driven primarily by the long-haul fleet expanding to 16 A330-300s by 2026.

As part of its renewal efforts, three of the A330-200s are scheduled to be retired by 2026, which will then result in more A330-300s entering service. This model, the carrier says, is ideally suited to the holiday and private travel segment.

From 2026, the airline will begin the gradual introduction of four A350-900s to overhaul its long-haul fleet, while the short to medium-haul fleet is expected to benefit from growth, with up to 20 A320 jets by 2028.

Lufthansa Says Farewell

To facilitate the transition to the Airbus A350 for Discover Airlines, changes will be made to Lufthansa’s operations with the jet.

The Airbus A350s will be transferred from the German flag carrier, where leases are set to expire, driven by the A350-900s initially coming from Philippine Airlines.

The logical step, therefore, for Lufthansa to grow the Discover network and further optimise the Group, is to send these expiring Airbus A350s over to Discover at a time that suits best.

Discover Airlines will therefore become the latest to receive the Airbus A350, joining a long list that continues to develop the long-haul fleet and rely on this flagship widebody to meet increasing demand.

Based on available fleet data, among those expected to be transferred to Discover Airlines are D-AIVA, delivered to Lufthansa in April 2022, and previously flown with Philippine Airlines, where it was first delivered in 2018 and registered as RP-C3503.

Next, D-AIVB was also delivered to Lufthansa in April 2022, following its use by Philippine Airlines as RP-C3504. This unit was leased from Avolon and stored at multiple locations before being withdrawn from service in early 2022.

D-AVID is the next A350-900 operating with Lufthansa, which was delivered in May 2022. This model was previously operated by Philippine Airlines as RP-C3507, the youngest, with its first delivery occurring in February 2019 from Goshawk Aviation.

All up, Lufthansa has 31 Airbus A350 aircraft to its name, and at this stage, they average an age of 5.4 years and are all for the A350-900 model, which’ll soon change with the planned acquisition of the A350-1000.