Lufthansa’s Airbus A350 – What We Know So Far

Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission which helps contribute to the running of the site – I’m very grateful to anyone who uses these links but their use is entirely optional. The compensation does not impact how and where products appear on this site and does not impact reviews that are published.

UPDATED 9 November 2016: Seat map now released (click here)

UPDATED 21 November 2016: Delivery date and date/schedule for first long-haul flight announced (see below)

After 11 days in the paint shop Lufthansa’s first A350 appeared in full Lufthansa livery for the first time last week and, as I’ve had a few questions on the blog about Lufthansa’s plans for the aircraft, I thought I’d put together a post on what we know so far and what we can surmise from other information available.

Lufthansa Airbus A350 minus its engines – image courtesy of Lufthansa

Lufthansa A350 Q&A:

Q. When will the first Lufthansa A350 be delivered?

Lufthansa’s first A350 will be delivered on 19 December 2016.

Q. When will Lufthansa start flying the A350?

Lufthansa has said that the first regular commercial flight will be from Munich to Delhi on 10 February 2017. However its highly that Lufthansa will schedule a number of short-haul flights for the A350 before that date to allow for crew familiarisation.

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)

Q. Where will the Lufthansa A350’s fly from?

A. The first ten Lufthansa A350 aircraft will be stationed in Munich while the destination of the next fifteen aircraft on the order books hasn’t yet been revealed.

Q. Where will Lufthansa fly its Airbus A350s?

The first Lufthansa A350 routes will be to Delhi and Boston, beyond that Lufthansa hasn’t released any more information.

Lufthansa Airbus A350 still without engines – image courtesy of Lufthansa

Q. Will Lufthansa fly the A350 on European routes before its launched on the longer international routes?

A. Almost certainly yes. Whenever an airline takes delivery of a new type of aircraft it needs to get its crews used to working on the new plane and that usually happens on domestic and short-haul international flights. Finnair did this when it received its first A350, THAI is doing this right now with its new Dreamliners and American is doing this right now with its new 787-9 Dreamliners.

Q. Will the Lufthansa A350 come fitted with a First Class cabin?

No. The A350 will have 3 cabins – Business Class, Premium Economy and Economy Class

Q. How many seats will the Lufthansa A350 have?

A. 293. These will be split between 48 Business Class seats, 21 Premium Economy Class seats and 224 regular Economy Class seats.

Q. Will the Lufthansa A350 Business Class cabin come with a new Business Class seat?

A. No. No new Business Class seat is expected from Lufthansa for a few years so the A350 is expected to come with the current Lufthansa Business Class seat in a 2-2-2 layout (so no all-aisle-access).

Update 9 November 2016: Seat map now released and 2-2-2 layout confirmed – see here

Lufthansa Business Class

Q. What will the Premium Economy be like.

A. Small. The cabin will hold just 21 seats set out over three rows in a 2-3-2 layout. The seats are expected to come with the same 38″ of seat pitch as found in Lufthansa’s 747s but are only likely to be around 18″ wide (the 747s offer 19″ of seat width).

Q. Will Economy Class be cramped?

A. Almost certainly. Lufthansa offers just 31″ of seat pitch and seats that are just 17″ wide in its existing long haul Economy Class cabins and that’s unlikely to change in the A350.

Bottom Line

I’d like to say that I’m excited to see another European airline adding the A350 to its fleet but I can’t.

I’m not a fan of Lufthansa’s latest Business Class seat (where the seats angle towards each other and only have a very small divider where the feet meet), the Premium Economy product looks underwhelming and the Economy Class product will be just as cramped as on the airline’s other aircraft….so what is there really to look forward to?

The A350 is a fantastic aircraft with some very clever new technology but, while the aircraft is doing its best to enhance passenger comfort with larger windows and excellent heating/cooling/air circulation systems, I haven’t heard of a single thing that Lufthansa is doing with the A350 that will improve the experience for passengers…perhaps they’re saving something for closer to launch date?