Lufthansa will base its incoming 777-9 fleet in Frankfurt.
Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr made the announcement in Berlin yesterday. Although this airplane has been hyped for years and Lufthansa’s new business class product was unveiled in November 2017, the first delivery will not occur until late in 2020. The Boeing 777-9 (also called the 777X) is intended to replace the 747-400 fleet.
With the 777-9s coming to Frankfurt, Spohr also announced that two more Airbus A380 will move to Munich as the first two 777-9s arrive. In the winter months, Lufthansa operates the A380 between Munich and:
- Hong Kong
- Miami
- San Francisco
During the summer months, the A380 operates between Munich and:
- Beijing
- Hong Kong
- Los Angeles
No word yet on what new routes will receive A380 service from Munich. Coupled with Lufthansa’s announcement that it would sell six A380s back to Airbus, Lufthansa will have just eight remaining A380s.
> Read More: Lufthansa Snubs The A380
Lufthansa’s initial deliveries of the 777X will feature three cabins of service:
- Economy
- Premium Economy
- Business Class
Indeed, first class is missing. But don’t panic, at least not yet. Spohr indicated that these initial 777-9 deliveries will not have first class because they will replace the 747-400 fleet which also doesn’t have first class. But later deliveries likely will have first class since Lufthansa still hopes to keep roughly half its long-haul fleet with a first class cabin. I’ll have more on that tomorrow.
CONCLUSION
As disappointing as it that the first 20 777-9s will not have first class, I am certainly looking forward to the new business class. I’m also glad to see them at Frankfurt, my preferred Lufthansa hub.
> Read More: Next Generation Lufthansa Business Class Seat Revealed
Off topic question, but since you brought it up. Why do you prefer FRA to MUC as a hub? Other than the F terminal, I find everything at MUC to be better as a hub, and as an SFO guy, I love the late flights to/from MUC. As a place to connect in Europe, FRA is my second least favorite hub (a distant second after LHR).
I lived and worked in Frankfurt. Purely sentimental reasons mostly. I do prefer the first class lounges in FRA over MUC.
How can FRA be your preferred LH hub? That place is a mess. MUC and VIE are more relaxed and less congested. Other than the First Class terminal I don’t see why you would prefer FRA.
I don’t like the lounge in VIE.
@Matthew a little off topic but why exactly do you prefer FRA over MUC? I often find Frankfurt airport a total mess, staffing issues (I assume) seem to cause huge security lines at times, terminals are always under renovation or construction, the whole place isn’t very easy to navigate and feels disjointed as if they kept expanding it without putting any thought into making it all work together.
Interestingly, I’ve never really run into any horrible security lines in FRA in all my years of flying there. I’ve never been there during a strike, though.
Make no mistake, transfers at MUC can be easy or very long distance and time consuming. I would never schedule a transfer with less than 75 minutes. MUC is a very modern airport with signage at deplaning estimating walking time to the gate for any transfer passengers, the walks can be absurd. The same can be true at FRA, especially to or from Z gates. I still prefer that at FRA there is no need to go down, take a subway and go back up.
I flew many times previously on LH 747-400’s and they had 1st class upstairs -8 seats
Sadly, this has all been ripped out.
“The Boeing 777-9 (also called the 777X) …” Not quite. The 777X is the designation for the entire next-gen series, including -8, -9, proposed -10X, and BBJ variant. Much as 737NG or Max includes several individual models.