Posted by John McHale

 

FRANKFURT, Germany, 27 May 2010. Lufthansa received its first A380 aircraft from Airbus. Lufthansa has 15 A380s on order, which will join the airline's more than 180 Airbus jetliners currently in service -- ranging from single-aisle A319s, A320s, and A321s to widebody A300s, A330s, and A340s. 

 

The airline's A380s are powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 900s, which are one of the two engines choices offered by Airbus on the aircraft.

 

"Lufthansa has always been a very important and strong partner of Airbus in the development of our aircraft family," says Thomas Enders, president and chief executive officer of Airbus. "With the same enthusiasm and technical professionalism, Lufthansa played a pivotal role in the A380 program, especially in its certification -- which included the participation of the airline's crews in route proving flights and compatibility trials."

 

During the coming weeks, Lufthansa's initial A380 will make a number of stopovers at airports in Germany for pilot line training, followed by a 6 June trip to Johannesburg, South Africa with Germany's team for the Football World Cup.

 

Lufthansa's scheduled A380 operations will start on 11 June with three weekly Frankfurt-Tokyo flights, replacing Boeing 747-400 service. Following the delivery of its second A380, this route will be served daily beginning in August.

 

Service subsequently will be expanded by Lufthansa to include Frankfurt-Beijing and Frankfurt-Johannesburg flights.

 

The airline's A380 seating configuration includes eight completely new first class seats on the upper deck, along with 98 business class seats. Its main deck's economy cabin accommodates 420 passengers.

 

The A380 delivered today was the 28th provided by Airbus to international airline customers. A380s currently operated by Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Emirates, and Air France have flown over five million passengers on more than 14,000 commercial flights.

 

To date, Airbus has received 202 firm orders for the A380 from 17 customers, which are to use the aircraft on a variety of services that include long-haul operations between major city destinations, inter-regional routes and low-cost/charter flights in high-density markets.