Lufthansa, Airbus’ largest airline customer, commits to up to 55 A350s

Lufthansa and Airbus announced (19-Sep-2013) a commitment by the carrier for up to 55 A350-900 aircraft (25 firm and 30 options). Lufthansa has selected Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines worth USD1.5 billion, including TotalCare service support, to power the 25 A350-900 aircraft. Lufthansa also has the flexibility to convert some of the order to the larger A350-1000. This landmark A350 order comes just six months after Lufthansa made the strategic decision to become an all-Airbus operator for its single-aisle fleet. So far in 2013, Airbus been awarded more firm orders from Lufthansa (125) in a single year than ever before. Taking all commitments (firm and options) into account the figure rises to 232 aircraft - one more than the 231 Airbus aircraft currently in operation with the Lufthansa Airline. Lufthansa's decision underpins the Group's status as Airbus' largest airline customer and operator, with to date 535 aircraft ordered and 397 currently in operation within the Group. The latter include: 282 A320 Family, 42 A330s, 63 A340s, and 10 A380s. Lufthansa has recently announced an order for 100 A320 Family aircraft to switch its single-aisle fleet in the 150-230 size category entirely to Airbus. Lufthansa has 60 Trent-powered Airbus A380s, A330s and A340s either in service or on order. Scheduled for entry-into-service in 2014, the A350 XWB to date has already won 682 firm orders from 35 customers worldwide. [more - original PR - Airbus] [more - original PR - Rolls-Royce] [more - original PR- Lufthansa] [more - original PR - Lufthansa - German]