Several Lufthansa aircraft permanently decommissioned

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa recently decided to decommission six Airbus A380s, seven A340-600s and five Boeing 747-400s aircrafts permanently. The company has even planned to withdraw eleven Airbus A320s from short-haul operations.

The decision arrives in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic as the airline plans to permanently change its structure. According to the airline, global travel restrictions would take several months to be completely lifted. Therefore, the global air travel demand would take years to return to pre-crisis normalcy. Airlines across the world have already started executing various changes according to the situation.

The executive board of the airline has decided to implement further extensive measures based on this evaluation to reduce the capacity of flight operations and long term administration. The effects of these on almost all flight operations across the group is inevitable.

The A340-600s and Boeing 747-400s were decommissioned due economic disadvantages and environmental issues of these aircraft types. Whereas, the six A380s were already scheduled for sale to Airbus in 2022. With regard to this change, Lufthansa will be reducing capacity at its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

In addition, Lufthansa Cityline will also withdraw three Airbus A340-300 aircraft from service. This would mean a disruption in the long-haul tourist destinations for Lufthansa as the regional carrier has been operating similar flights since 2015.

Eurowings, the long-haul business carrier that runs under the commercial responsibility of Lufthansa, will also be reduced. It will also decrease the number of its aircraft in the short-haul segment and around ten Airbus A320s would be grounded. On the other hand, the pre-COVID-19 implementation of Eurowings objective of consolidating flight operations into one unit will now be accelerated.

All flight operations of the low-cost carrier under Lufthansa, Germanwings will also be discontinued. Additionally, Lufthansa Group airlines have already terminated almost all wet lease agreements with other airlines.

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