Lufthansa places $4bn order for Airbus, Boeing aircraft
17 Mar 2011
German carrier Lufthansa said Wednesday it had split a $4bn order for planes between Boeing and Airbus ordering five B777 freighters and 30 A320 passenger planes.
The Airbus order is worth $2.7 billion at list prices while the Boeing order would amount to about $1.3 billion.
A Lufthansa statement said that its board had approved orders for 35 new aircraft, with 30 of the aircraft from the Airbus 320neo family and the other five orders for Boeing 777 freighters.
The statement said that besides greater fuel efficiency, all the models on order will help lower operating costs as well as noise levels and emissions. The orders were part of Lufthansa's ongoing fleet modernisation and expansion plans.
The total orders will include twenty five A320neo and five A321neo aircraft targeted for continental European traffic. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2016.
The aircraft will come with improved aerodynamics and new engines and will burn around 15 per cent less fuel than today's comparable models. Moreover, their noise emissions lie cumulatively between 10 to 15 dB below current noise limits and further improve noise reduction compared with the present fleet.
The carrier will receive five new Boeing 777 freighters from 2013 onwards. Apart from higher fuel efficiency, the noise footprint of the new freighters will also be smaller than that of the existing fleet.
The Boeing 777F is the most modern freighter of its size.