Lufthansa has today announced it is retiring 42 aircraft from it’s group’s fleet.
The decision has been made undoubtedly due to the current grounding due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the anticipated downturn in air travel which will result.
The airline has chosen to retire a proportion of its older and least economic aircraft from across its narrow- and wide-body fleets, including those operated by partners Eurowings and Lufthansa Cityline.
The aircraft to be retired are as follows:
- 6 Airbus A380s
- 3 Airbus A340-300s (operated by Lufthansa Cityline)
- 7 Airbus A340-600s
- 5 Boeing 747-400s
- 11 Airbus A320s
- 10 Airbus A320s (operated by Eurowings)
The airline commented:
The Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG does not expect the aviation industry to return to pre-coronavirus crisis levels very quickly.  According to its assessment, it will take months until the global travel restrictions are completely lifted and years until the worldwide demand for air travel returns to pre-crisis levels.  Based on this evaluation, today the Executive Board has decided on extensive measures to reduce the capacity of flight operations and administration long term.
In some cases, the aircraft were already planned for retirement, but that date has been brought forward.
In addition, the Lufthansa Group airlines have already terminated almost all wet lease agreements with other airlines.
The move will also enable Lufthansa to consolidate its flight operations and capacity at its major hubs.
It will also retire the Germanwings brand, which was still painted on the older Airbus A320s being retired.
(Lead photo (c) Erik Ritterbach)
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