On August 30, Lufthansa finally took delivery of its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner, nicknamed «Berlin» and registered as D-ABPA, out of a total of 32 aircraft ordered.
According to the company’s reservation system, starting October 19 the 787 will begin connecting its two main hubs, namely Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC).
It will have between two and three daily flights each way out of eleven services per day offered by the company between the two German cities. Lufthansa said that this schedule will continue until December, and that these are domestic flights to familiarize crews, ground operators and pilots with the aircraft, as a preliminary step to its introduction in the segment for which it was ordered: intercontinental flights.
- Flight LH 096 Frankfurt (FRA) 08:15 – 09:10 Munich (MUC).
- LH 106 (FRA) 1315 – 1410 (MUC)
- LH 114 (FRA) 1715 – 1810 (MUC)
- LH 101 (MUC) 1000 – 1100 (FRA)
- LH 111 (MUC) 1500 – 1600 (FRA)
- LH 119 (MUC) 1900 – 2000 (FRA)
After the adaptation flights, the first regular intercontinental destination for the Dreamliner will be Toronto (YYZ), Canada, although schedules have not been published at the time of writing.
Lufthansa expects to receive in the coming weeks the second Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which is registered under the registration number D-ABPD and has been christened «Frankfurt am Main».
The German carrier’s first five 787 will have the same cabin as Hainan Airlines’ aircraft, which include 26 Business Class seats (1-2-1) of Collins Aerospace’s Super Diamond model, 21 Premium Economy seats and 247 seats in Economy.
The remaining Dreamliners will have the group’s new Business Class and Premium Economy products incorporated, which debuted this year on SWISS Boeing 777-300ER and will then be installed on Airbus A350, Boeing 747-8i, Airbus A330-300 and Boeing 777-9X (when they enter),
A brief history of Lufthansa’s Boeing 787
In 2019, Lufthansa Group ordered 20 787-9 as part of its intercontinental fleet renewal plan, and over the years the order grew to 32 units that will be distributed among the group’s airlines. Lufthansa will be the first operator and will base this model at its Frankfurt hub.
The first five Dreamliners of Germany’s largest airline operator come from an order placed by Hainan Airlines, then transferred to Vistara and finally taken over by Lufthansa after negotiations with Boeing due to delays in the 777-9X program. These first aircraft are powered by General Electric, while the other 27 units will be equipped with Rolls-Royce engines.
