Fleet Analysis: Lufthansa Group airlines
Lufthansa Group announced last week it will launch its latest airline, City Airlines. The airline will focus on short and medium-haul routes, expanding the European route network, and plans to operate with an Airbus fleet.
Will Lufthansa use its existing fleet for City Airlines, or use incoming jets, or combine it with Lufthansa CityLine fleet?
Lufthansa operates a mainline fleet consisting of Airbus narrow and widebody and Boeing widebody aircraft. At the end of 2022, the Lufthansa Group fleet comprised 710 aircraft (previous year: 713 aircraft). The average age of the aircraft in the fleet was 13.1 years (previous year: 12.7 years).
The fleet shrank by three aircraft year-on-year, when 24 aircraft were added, while 27 were disposed of. The additions to the fleet comprised 16 new aircraft (two Boeing 787-9s, five Airbus A321neos and nine A320neos) and eight used aircraft (four A350-900s, two A321P2Fs and one A320-200, each leased, and one Boeing 777F).
On the other hand, in 2022 twelve older, comparatively inefficient aircraft were sold (three A321s, six A320s and three Bombardier CRJ900s) and the leasing agreements for 15 aircraft were ended. Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, 110 aircraft have been retired. In the same period, i.e. since the end of 2019, 57 aircraft have been added.
Lufthansa German Airlines fleet including regional airlines: Lufthansa CityLine (LH), Eurowings Discover (LH), Germanwings and Eurowings (EW), SWISS including Edelweiss (LX), Austrian Airlines (OS), Brussels Airlines (SN), and Lufthansa Cargo (LCAG) as of Dec 31, 2022.
| Aircraft Type | Lufthansa | Swiss | Austrian | Brussels | Eurowings | Cargo | Group fleet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A220 | 30 | 30 | |||||
| Airbus A319 | 37 | 15 | 36 | 88 | |||
| Airbus A320 | 94 | 31 | 31 | 16 | 59 | 231 | |
| Airbus A321 | 78 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 21) | 96 | |
| Airbus A330 | 25 | 16 | 9 | 50 | |||
| Airbus A340 | 34 | 9 | 43 | ||||
| Airbus A350 | 21 | 21 | |||||
| Airbus A380 | 14 | 14 | |||||
| Boeing 747 | 27 | 27 | |||||
| Boeing 767 | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Boeing 777 | 12 | 6 | 18 | ||||
| Boeing 787 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Boeing 777ERF Cargo | 162) | 16 | |||||
| Bombardier CRJ | 28 | 28 | |||||
| Bombardier Q-Series | 0 | ||||||
| Embraer | 26 | 17 | 43 | ||||
| Total aircraft | 386 | 107 | 63 | 40 | 96 | 18 | 710 |
1) A321P2F operated by Lufthansa CityLine.
2) Partly operated by AeroLogic, of which two aircraft attributed pro rata.
Fleet orders Lufthansa Group
At year-end 2022, there were 174 aircraft on the Lufthansa Group’s order list. There are also options to buy a further 58 aircraft.
| Aircraft Type | Orders1) | Options | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long-haul fleet | |||
| Airbus A350 | 28 | 2023 to 2029 | |
| Boeing 787 | 30 | 20 | 2022 to 2026 |
| Boeing 777X | 20 | 24 | 2025 to 2028 |
| Boeing 777-200ERF Cargo | 9 | 2023 to 2030 | |
| Short-haul fleet | |||
| Airbus A220 | 14 | ||
| Airbus A320 | 57 | 2023 to 2027 | |
| Airbus A321 | 30 | 2023 to 2027 | |
| Total aircraft | 174 | 58 | 2023 to 2030 |
1) Excluding contracted leases. Data from Lufthansa annual report Dec. 2022.
The new City Airlines will focus on short to medium-haul routes operating an all-Airbus fleet, it will most likely include the Airbus A319 model, which can seat a maximum of 160 passengers. It will operate from Munich airport.
The groups’ Lufthansa CityLine is based at Munich Airport and at Frankfurt Airport. The airline offers mores than 360 daily flights to more than 72 destinations using a fleet of Bombadier CRJ aircraft and Embraers E 190’s and 195’s using the Lufthansa CityLine brand.
The airline said the new member aims to combine the quality of Lufthansa with the expertise of another subsidiary, Lufthansa CityLine. “We are thrilled to fly daily from our home base in Munich to major European cities and remote regions. As a new airline in the Lufthansa Group, we combine the quality of Lufthansa and the experience of Lufthansa CityLine with the dynamism of a new young company.”
Lufthansa had planned to hire former Germanwings pilots under contracts with lower wages compared to those offered by other airlines in the group. But the plan was met with opposition. It is worth noting that Germanwings ceased operations in 2020, and its fleet was incorporated into Eurowings.
It is still too early to predict, but we could assume that the new airline will operate a combination of A319s and A320s, or it might eventually combine the operations of Lufthansa CityLine and City Airlines and eliminate the older CRJs and E190/195s. This solution would create a more fuel efficient single aircraft operations with Airbus A320neo series short to medium-haul jets.