Lufthansa Group to cut new aircraft deliveries in half

Lufthansa Airbus A350-900. Photo: © Phillip Rohmberger / IFN

Lufthansa Group will cut the maximum number of accepted new aircraft deliveries in half until 2023.

This was announced on Tuesday as part of a second package in its restructuring programme to deal with the economic effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Another key part of the announcement is the reduction of leadership positions by 20 percent across the group. Furthermore, 1,000 administrative jobs will be cut at Lufthansa.

The company says its financial planning up to 2023 will only allow for the acceptance of 80 new aircraft deliveries, reducing fleet renewal investments by half.

When asked by International Flight Network, Lufthansa says that it’s in ongoing ‘constructive’ discussions with aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing and will not comment on the question which aircraft specifically would be delayed. Lufthansa further states that it did not accept any new aircraft deliveries since the beginning of this crisis. Subsidiaries Swiss and Austrian Airlines each received only one Airbus A320neo during this period.

In April, the airline group had presented its first set of measures which included reducing its around 750 aircraft strong fleet by about 100. German flag-carrier Lufthansa itself confirmed 32 aircraft retirements at the time, including six of 14 Airbus A380, five Boeing 747-400, and a number of A320 and A340. Later, it was confirmed that the airline will ground its A340-600 fleet for an unspecified time.

Last month, shareholders accepted a €9 billion rescue deal for Lufthansa with the German government, which will see the state take a 20 percent stake in the airline. At the conference, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr stated that the remaining eight Airbus A380 will likely be based exclusively at Munich Airport.

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