Luftwaffe to add two A321neo(LR)s in 2022

The German Air Force (Luftwaffe) has signed a contract with Lufthansa Technik to outfit two brand-new A321-200NX(LR)s for a variety of missions, ranging from medevac to troop transport. The delivery of the aircraft to the air force is scheduled for 2022. Lufthansa Technik said that the aircraft will be delivered as new from Airbus in September and October 2021. The units will be outfitted at Lufthansa Technik’s facility at Hamburg Helmut Schmidt airport. “The aircraft can be used in 18 different interior configurations. Their passenger transport capacity ranges from 136 to 163 passengers. Furthermore, the transport of up to six intensive care patients, the transport of up to twelve slightly or moderately ill/injured patients, as well as various mixed configurations for patient transport are possible,” the MRO provider said. Earlier this year, the German media speculated that the German Air Force could take over some of the outstanding A321neo orders from Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt Int’l), which are not needed by the airline in the current market environment. However, an airline spokesperson told aeroTELEGRAPH that the two units to be added by Luftwaffe are not sourced from Lufthansa’s order book. The air force itself did not respond to ch-aviation’s question about the source of the aircraft.According to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module, Airbus did not have any announced orders directly from any government for the A320neo Family jets as of May 31, 2020. Lufthansa had firm outstanding orders for thirty-five A321-200N and sixty-one A320-200N, but none for the (LR) variant. Luftwaffe already operates three ACJ319-100s, one A310-300, four A310-300(MRTT)s, one A321-200, two A340-300s, and thirty-three A400Ms. Lufthansa Technik is also outfitting three A350-900s for Luftwaffe, which are due to replace the ageing A340s as VIP transport aircraft.