German airline Lufthansa announced on September 7th that the first destination of its Boeing 787-9 aircraft will be Toronto, Canada. While the carrier has yet to receive the 787s, news of its first route has got aviation enthusiasts excited. The carrier already operates the fuel-efficient Airbus A350 aircraft, and the 787 will soon become a part of its fleet and network.
Debut route
The delivery of Lufthansa’s Dreamliners is still a few months away, but that didn’t stop the airline from announcing its debut route formally. In an official tweet on Tuesday, the airline declared that the first destination of its Dreamliner will be Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ).
The carrier plans to include the 787s in its winter schedule, with aircraft delivery expected to begin in early 2022 through to 2025. There’s also speculation that it could debut its brand-new business class product with the 787s.
Lufthansa will launch its new premium cabins in early 2022, pretty much around the same time it is expecting to receive its first few Dreamliners. If all goes well, the airlines' first Dreamliner flight to Toronto could feature this highly anticipated product.
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Fleet modifications
Like many airlines worldwide, Lufthansa, too, wants to move towards the new generation of fuel-efficient twin-engine jets. The carrier has more or less written off its entire fleet of A380 superjumbos and now relies quite a lot on its 17 active Airbus A350-900 aircraft with 28 more on order, as per ch-aviation.
The 787s, too, will become a part of the carrier’s next-generation fleet. In March 2019, the Lufthansa Group ordered 20 Boeing 787s and then added another five to the list in May 2021. This brings the total number of Dreamliners to be delivered to the group to 25.
Lufthansa was initially expecting to receive the Dreamliner by Christmas of 2021. However, with the recent quality-related restrictions put on its deliveries by the FAA, a delivery date of early 2022 seems more realistic. In fact, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, the deliveries of the 787s may not begin until late October.
Future plans
With the A380s unofficially retired from Lufthansa’s fleet, it still has a sizable chunk of active four-engine airplanes – the Boeing 747s and Airbus A340s. While only time will tell how long Lufthansa will continue to operate these, the carrier has shown strong signs of a twin-engine dominated fleet in the future.
Lufthansa has shown huge faith in Boeing’s 777X program, placing an order in November 2013. Currently, its total order for the 777X stands at 20 aircraft. The carrier was expecting its first 777X in 2020, but the delay with its certification has now pushed it to 2023. In the meantime, it continues to deploy its A350s to many key destinations, making good use of the lighter, more economical aircraft.
The announcement of Toronto as Lufthansa’s first route for its 787 is part of the carrier's lofty ambitions for the Dreamliner. As per reports, Lufthansa became the launch customer of the latest-generation Boeing 787 Flight Training Device (FTD) due to be delivered to its pilot training facility in Frankfurt in 2022. Clearly, this latest announcement by the carrier seems to be the first of many more exciting 787 routes it has planned.
How excited are you about Lufthansa's 787s? Where else could the carrier deploy its Dreamliners? Do share your comments.