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Lufthansa plans to retire all Boeing 747-400s, all Airbus A380s and most A340s
early, insiders report to Bloomberg. A few weeks ago it was already leaked
that the German company was thinking about this, but now the farewell would be
a lot closer. However, an official decision is still lacking.
 
Due to the corona crisis, Lufthansa no longer needs these relatively thirsty
aircraft. In addition, it is inefficient to maintain small sub-fleets of A380s
and 747-400s, as some of them were disposed of early at the start of the
crisis. According to the insiders, only a few relatively young A340-600s
remain from the A340 fleet.
 
The highly diluted long-haul fleet will then consist mainly of Airbus A350s,
A330s and Boeing 747-8s, until the new Boeing 787-9s and 777-9s are delivered.
According to Bloomberg, the narrowbody fleet is also being cut further. All in
all, this will probably lead to additional job losses, on top of the
previously announced reduction of 22,000 FTE.
 
If Lufthansa retires the 747-400s and A380s, there will be hardly any European
carriers left with these types in their passenger fleets. British Airways
alone has a substantial fleet of the A380, and of the 747-400 the Russian
Rossiya Airlines. Charterers such as Hi Fly and Wamos also have a few.

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