The Chart:

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Bad news, Good news...

Lufthansa's order has been made official. 34 777-9Xs and 25 A350-900s. This order is mostly bad news for the prospects of 747-8I sales. I had thought this order was going to be 25/25 of each widebody twin, solely targeting the replacement of Lufthansa's 50 A340s (300 and 600 models), and leaving the late model 747-400s for a future order. It turns out that this order is targeting the replacement of their late model 747-400s as well.

Bad news:
  • Newer model 747-400s will be replaced with 777-9Xs
  • Unlikely Lufthansa will order any significant amount of additional 747-8Is in the future
Good news:
  • Newer 747-400s will fly their full life span (22-24 years) before being retired by 2025
  • A340-600s (fellow four holers) will fly a good life span (16-18 years) before being retired by 2025
  • Lufthansa will take delivery of all 19 747-8Is, and plans for them to be a key part of their long haul fleet in 2025 (implying they'll remain in service well past that date)

In other good news:
  • Line 1435 (RC021) continues her flight test program, now 300+ hours in, testing new engines, tail tank, and other things
  • Line 1437 (RC573) is back in the air. Could it be nearing a sale?
  • Line 1463 (RC604) VQ-BRH for AirBridgeCargo is back at the delivery center, hopefully to fly into service soon

And lastly, because I was bored and it's a 2+ year old frame flying for the first time, here's 787 line 36 (ZA381) B-2726 for China Southern taking to the skies. And seeing as she's meant for China Southern, this means that she'll probably deliver sometime in the next 12-24 months.







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