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UPDATED 21 November 2016: Flight times for Delhi route added
After months of speculation Lufthansa has finally announced the delivery date of its first Airbus A350 aircraft and, at the same time, has now told us when we can expect to the airline’s new aircraft makes its first long-haul commercial flight.
For full details of what we know so far about the Lufthansa A350 please check out this Q&A
For details of the Lufthansa A350 seat map please see this post from earlier this month
Lufthansa will take delivery of its first Airbus A350 aircraft on 19 December 2016 and the airline has said that the first regular commercial flight will be from Munich (where the A350 fleet will be based) to Delhi on 10 February 2017.
While Lufthansa has said that Munich – Delhi on 10 February will be the first regular commercial flight it’s highly likely that we’ll see the airline’s new aircraft in the sky sooner than that.
When airlines receive a new aircraft type they always schedule a number of short-haul flights to allow for crew familiarization before the aircraft is released on to its regular routes…and that’s almost certainly what Lufthansa will do here.
The official line from Lufthansa is as follows:
Once Lufthansa has taken ownership of the aircraft on 19 December, the A350-900 will be transferred to Munich during the week leading up to Christmas. Lufthansa Technik in Munich will then install the cabin interior including the new Premium Economy Class as well as other features so that the new flagship aircraft will be ready to be presented to the public at the beginning of February.
I would be very surprised if we didn’t see the A350 flying routes like Munich – London or Munich – Madrid in the last weeks of January or the first week in February.
Lufthansa has multiple daily flights on routes like these so the A350 could perform numerous turns on the same day and give crew all the experience they need.
Here is the schedule for the A350 on the Delhi route (from 10 February 2017):
LH762 MUC 12:20 – 00:10+1 day DEL (Daily Service)
LH763 DEL 01:50 – 05:40 MUC (Daily Service)
Stay tuned for more details – I’ll keep the blog updated for any news.
Featured image courtesy of Lufthansa
