A380 D Aimb Lht Frankfurt Geparkt Mit Engine Cover

While airline companies all over the world are grounding planes right now temporarily, some long-term strategies are being made as well, as airline companies do not see the need for travel recuperating anytime quickly.

Lufthansa doesn’t expect need to recuperate for many years

Lufthansa has exposed that they don’t expect the air travel market to return to pre-coronavirus crisis levels really rapidly:

  • They believe it will take months up until the international travel constraints are completely raised
  • They think it will take years until the around the world need for flight returns to pre-crisis levels

Lufthansa retiring several airplane type

In light of the expected long-term decrease in demand, Lufthansa is retiring several airplane type effective instantly:

  • Lufthansa will be retiring six Airbus A380 s (out of 14), which were formerly arranged to be sold to Plane in 2022
  • Lufthansa will be retiring seven Airbus A340-600 s (out of 17), due to “financial drawbacks” of this aircraft
  • Lufthansa will be retiring 5 Boeing 747-400 s (out of 13), due to “financial disadvantages” of this airplane
  • Lufthansa will be retiring 11 Plane A320 s, as the airline company still has lots of A320 neos and A321 neos on order, and I envision they can’t leave taking shipment of at least some of them
  • Lufthansa CityLine will be retiring all three Plane A340-300 s, which have been used for long run leisure paths

Lufthansa will be retiring 6 A380 s

Eurowings is also seeing reductions

Lufthansa Group’s low cost carrier, Eurowings, will likewise be seeing some decreases:

  • 10 Jet A320 s will be phased out
  • Eurowings long haul company class will be “reduced” (that’s all we know in the meantime)
  • Germanwings flight operations will be ceased and combined into Eurowings, in order to bundle low expense flight operations into just one unit

Eurowings will see reductions also

Cuts coming at Austrian & SWISS too

While the information are restricted currently, Austrian and SWISS will likewise be changing their fleet size by postponing aircraft deliveries of new short haul airplane, in addition to considering the stage out of older airplane. We’ll need to remain tuned for the complete information of that.

Austrian may phase out older aircraft

Bottom line

At first a number of us were shocked as airlines around the globe grounded their fleets. Now the truth is rapidly embeding in that a number of these groundings will end up being irreversible.

At this moment it’s clear that a lot of airline companies expect it will be years before need fully recovers. We’re seeing airlines retire airplanes now that they were otherwise preparing on retiring in the coming years.

When it comes to Lufthansa, this means we’ll see the retirement of some A340 s, A380 s, 747 s, and more.

Are you shocked by the degree to which airline companies are making long term fleet cuts today?

Ben (Fortunate)

About Ben (Lucky)

Ben Schlappig (aka Fortunate) is a travel consultant, blogger, and avid points collector.
He takes a trip about 400,000 miles a year, mainly utilizing miles and indicate improve his very first class experiences.
He narrates his experiences, along with industry news, here at One Mile at a Time.

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