Boeing Beats Out Airbus With First Lufthansa Narrow-Body Sale Since 1995

A Boeing 787 at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport
Lufthansa, Europe’s largest airline, announced an order for up to 100 Boeing 737 Max jets as well as a separate order for 40 Airbus A220-300 jetliners, née the Bombardier CSeries.
The order is the airline’s first purchase of single-aisle planes from Boeing in three decades.
The airline has a long history with the Boeing 737.
“Around 60 years ago, Lufthansa was co-developer and launch customer of this globally successful model,“ said Carsten Spohr, Vorstandsvorsitzender of the airline. “With the new modern, quiet, economical and efficient 737-8 aircraft, we are making progress both in modernizing our short- and medium-haul fleet and in achieving our carbon CO2 reduction targets.”
Lufthansa was the launch customer for the Boeing 737 in 1967. The German carrier took delivery of the first of 146 737s until its final delivery of a 737-300 in 1995. The airline retired its last 737s, which were 737-300 and 737-500 models, in 2016.
The carrier nonetheless has a number of Boeing wide-body aircraft in its current fleet including 19 747-8 Intercontinentals, for which it is the largest operator of type, as well as five Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. It also has an additional 34 Dreamliners on order as well as 20 more Triple 7’s.
The five-abreast A220 was developed by Bombardier and launched in 2008.  It was rebranded as the A220 after Airbus acquired a 50.1% stake in Bombardier.  Lufthansa later acquired Bombardier’s remaining 25% share, while the remaining 25% is held by the Québec government.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)