Lufthansa Cargo is purchasing two more Boeing 777F and plans to accelerate the retirement of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11F.
In an announcement published on Thursday, the German airline says this new investment has been approved by its Supervisory Board and parent Lufthansa Group. Both new airplanes are due to be delivered directly from aircraft manufacturer Boeing in 2020, they will be based at the airline’s Frankfurt hub.
Lufthansa Cargo currently operates seven Boeing 777F along with ten older McDonnell Douglas MD-11F. The airline now plans to retire all of the MD-11F by the end of 2020. It originally operated 18 frames of the three-engined plane. However, the carrier will be able to replace it with fewer aircraft thanks to the higher capacity and longer range of the 777F. Lufthansa Cargo also has the possibility to use four Boeing 777F from its partner AeroLogic to provide additional freight capacity beyond its own fleet of aircraft.
The airline says the newer Boeing freighter is around 20 percent more fuel efficient and emits significantly less noise than the MD-11F, which entered service at Lufthansa Cargo in 1998.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
