Lufthansa is taking extraordinary measures in order to respond to a significant increase in booking demand for flights to Palma de Mallorca from both Frankfurt and Munich. The booking figures for the destination “PMI” have increased 25 times between April and the beginning of June 2021: The airline will be operating a Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental from Frankfurt to Palma de Mallorca four Saturdays in a row during the upcoming summer vacation in Hesse. Additionally, the airline also plans to operate an Airbus A350 from Munich to the Balearic Island at the start of the summer vacation in Bavaria. Although these routes are normally operated by an Airbus A321, on 31 July, two wide-body Lufthansa aircraft will be arriving on Palma de Mallorca.
Departing Frankfurt with the “Jumbo”
The Boeing 747-8 is the largest aircraft that Lufthansa is currently operating, offering up to 364 seats instead of the usual 215, which are normally available on this route. ย This wide-body aircraft offers passengers 88 Business Class seats (including First Class) as well as 276 seats in Economy Class (including Premium Economy).
The first โJumboโ flight, LH1152, will be departing the Rhine Main metropolis on Saturday 17July at 10:20 a.m., just in time for the start of the Hessian summer vacation, and arrive at Palma de Mallorca airport at 12:25 p.m. The return flight, LH1153 will take place the same day at 14:25 p.m., arriving in Frankfurt at 16:45 p.m.
The modern and kerosene-efficient Boeing 747-8, also known as the “Queen of the Skies”, will operate for an addition three weekends, specifically on 24 July, 31 July and 7 August.
Departing Munich with the Airbus A350
The Airbus A350 is the most sustainable long-haul aircraft in the Lufthansa fleet. It consumes 20 percent less kerosene and is 50 percent quieter than previous models.ย ย Those who want to experience the Lufthansa Airbus A350 along with its multi-award-winning cabin now have the chance to do so now. The aircraft offers 293 seats, including 48 in Business Class and 245 in Economy Class (including Premium Economy).
The A350 flight to Palma de Mallorca will take place at the start of the Bavarian summer vacations on Saturday 31 July. Departure from Munich is planned for 9:50 a.m. under flight number LH2658, arriving in Palma de Mallorca at 12:00 a.m. The return flight, LH2659, will take place the same day at 13:30 a.m. arriving in Munich at 15:35 p.m.
Top Copyright Photo: Lufthansa Boeing 747-8 D-ABYA (msn 37827) FRA (Marcelo F. De Biasi). Image: 944222.
Boeing (Chicago, Seattle and Charleston) hasย announced that 747 fuselage panels will be built at its Macon, Georgia facility beginning in 2018.
Boeing will take over the work from Triumph Aerostructures โ Vought Aircraft Division, a wholly owned subsidiary of Triumph Group, Inc., with the Macon site providing assembled fuselage panels to Boeing’s 747 final assembly line in Everett, Washington. Boeing and Triumph Aerostructures have worked together to ensure a smooth transition for the 747 supply chain.
Boeing and Triumph Aerostructures have worked together for many months to ensure a smooth transition for the 747 supply chain. As part of this detailed process, the Boeing team selected the Boeing Defense, Space & Security Macon facility for 747 fuselage panel work.
Defense work currently performed at the Macon site includes replacement center wing sections for the A-10 Thunderbolt II, as well as sub-assemblies for the CH-47 Chinook helicopter. Fuselage panels for the C-17 Globemaster transport airplane were also produced at the site until earlier this year.
Current defense work at the facility is scheduled to be complete in mid-2016, at which time Boeing will transition the site for Commercial Airplanes work. Facility staffing will be temporarily reduced during the transition. The site will ramp up to full production on 747 fuselage panels by mid-2018, at which point it will employ up to 200 people.
Macon will become the twelfth manufacturing site for the Boeing Commercial Airplanes Fabrication organization, which has operations in three countries.
Boeing will invest approximately $80 million in employee training, tooling and building modifications over the next three years.
The fuselage panel assembly transfer to the Macon site is the first of several new work packages for the 747 currently supplied by Triumph Aerostructures that Boeing will announce in the coming months.
Other 747 structures work now done by Triumph Aerostructures, including the empennage, floor beams and flight surfaces, is currently being competitively bid to selected suppliers. Boeing expects to have sourcing decisions for all the work completed this year.
At Macon, Boeing will equip the site with new tooling and equipment, which will occupy the entirety of the 220,000 square foot facility. A new advanced manufacturing production system will reduce the time to produce fuselage panels while also increasing quality and enhancing employee safety.
Copyright Photo: TMK Photography/AirlinersGallery.com. The 2015 version of Boeing’s support of the hometown NFL Seattle Seahawks. Boeing 747-83QF N841BA (msn 60119) lands back at Paine Field in the 12th Man livery.
Boeing (Chicago, Seattle and Charleston) has announced it will cut the 747-8 Intercontinental production rate by 23 percent from 1.3 aircraft to only one aircraft starting in March 2016 according to Reuters quoting Boeing sources. The company is currently building 1.5 aircraft per month and this was planned to be reduced to 1.3 in September despite a recent order by the Volga-Dnepr Group.
Copyright Photo: Royal S. King/AirlinersGallery.com. Lufthansa has always been a keen supporter of the 747 and pushed Boeing for the updated 747-8 model.ย Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-830 D-ABYT (msn 37844) in the 1968 retro scheme lands at Paine Field near Everett.
Boeing (Chicago, Seattle and Charleston)ย has received 330-minute Extended Operations (ETOPS) approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental. It is the first time a four-engine airplane has received this type of design approval.
With this approval, required for four-engine passenger airplanes built after Feb. 2015 to fly beyond 180 minutes from an en-route alternate airport, the 747-8’s design is approved to conduct 330-minute ETOPS missions. These missions allow operators to fly long-distances more directly on virtually any worldwide city pair routing.
Although ETOPS has been a requirement for twin-engine airplanes since the 1980s, the regulations have recently been applied to the design of passenger airplanes with more than two engines.
With 83 airplanes in service with 11 customers, 747-8s have logged more than 619,000 flight hours and more than 101,000 flight cycles.
Copyright Photo: Nick Dean/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 747-8KZF N50217 (JA12KZ) (msn 36137) climbs away from Paine Field near Everett.
Lufthansa (Frankfurt) will soon take delivery of this brand new Boeing 747-830 D-ABYT (msn 37844) (above). The new Jumbo was rolled out of the paint shop on February 8 at Paine Field sporting a basic 1968 livery, albeit minus the traditional metal finish on the bottom of the fuselage for that period. The aircraft will soon be flying test flights and we will have more photos soon.
The retro color scheme is part of modern day Lufthansa’s 60th Anniversary celebrations. Post-war Lufthansa restarted operations on April 1, 1955.
Top Photo: Lufthansa. D-ABYT in the Boeing paint shop after the work was finished.
Bottom Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum/AirlinersGallery.com. The first LH 747, Boeing 747-130 D-ABYA (msn 19746), is pictured taxiing to the gate at New York (JFK) on April 8, 1971 in the original 1968 livery for the Boeing Jumbo. The first 747 was handed over to the airline on March 10, 1970.
Lufthansa (Frankfurt) has converted its first aircraft with the new Premium Economy Class. The company issued this statement:
At 11.00 a.m. today, LH 9880, a special flight took off from Frankfurt Airport. On board the Boeing 747-830 was the new Premium Economy Class. The aircraft, with the registration number D-ABYQ (msn 37839(, is the first in the Lufthansa fleet to offer the new class of travel on board. Experts from Lufthansa Technik have fitted the Boeing 747-8 with the 32 new Premium Economy Class seats and performed all the necessary quality checks.
The aircraft, which is called the โSchleswig-Holsteinโ, flew over the German region of the same name in a two-hour special flight.
โToday, we are seeing a genuine premiรจreโ, said Karl Ulrich Garnadt, Member of the Executive Board of Lufthansa AG and CEO of Lufthansa German Airlines. โWe are launching a new travel class for the first time in 35 years.โ Garnadt stressed that Premium Economy was an important part of the โbiggest product upgrade in Lufthansaโs historyโ. By late summer of next year, Lufthansa will have modified First, Business and Premium Economy Class on its entire long-haul fleet according to schedule and as part of its quality campaign. โWith Premium Economy Class alone, we will be able to offer some 1.5 million passengers per year the opportunity to choose extra comfort and quality at affordable prices,โ said the German Airlines CEO.
From as early as December 1 โ nine days earlier than scheduled โ Lufthansa customers will be able to enjoy Premium Economy Class on all flights on the Boeing 747-8 fleet. The โdash-8 fleetโ will then offer by far the most cutting-edge and exclusive travelling experience available at Lufthansa.
Premium Economy Class seats will make up some ten percent of the entire seating capacity on each wide-bodied aircraft. Over the next few months, Lufthansa will thus fit between 21 (Airbus A330-300) and 52 (Airbus A380-800) new seats in each of its aircraft. On board the Boeing 747-8, 32 seats will be modified in line with Premium Economy Class specifications. The airline commissioned a total of 3,600 seats from the manufacturer ZIM.
โBooking levels to date have significantly exceeded our expectationsโ, Garnadt added. โThis shows that we are striking a chord with customers with our new offering. As well as cost-conscious business travellers, weโre also attracting the rapidly growing target group of leisure travellers who donโt want to skimp on on-board comforts during their holidays.โ
Alongside Premium Economy Class, Lufthansa is also working intently on upgrades to First and Business Class on board its long-haul aircraft. All these quality-related measures are set to be completed by late summer 2015. Lufthansa will then be in a position to offer its guests in all classes the exclusive travelling experience of a prizewinning five-star First Class as well as the new Business Class, where aircraft seats can be transformed at the touch of a button into a comfortable bed with a horizontal sleeping area of 1.98 metres long.
โI firmly believe that, with this package of products and measures, we will undoubtedly achieve our objective of becoming the first Western five-star airlineโ, said Garnadt.
Lufthansa is currently offering special introductory prices for Premium Economy Class flights. For instance, return flights to Washington D.C. are available from as little as EUR 1,199, while passengers to Beijing can enjoy the new travelling experience for a mere EUR 1,249.
In addition, no rebooking fees are being charged to passengers looking to rebook from Economy to Premium Economy Class. As soon as Lufthansa Premium Economy Class becomes available on a flight route, an existing Economy Class booking can be upgraded to Premium Economy Class. Passengers will only have to pay the difference between the fares of the two tickets, provided that no changes are made to the original flights that were booked. This applies even if the original ticket was booked for a price that did not permit rebooking.
To increase global awareness of the new Premium Economy Class on the market, Lufthansa launched a broad marketing campaign already in mid-September. At the heart of this campaign is its โRecorderโ TV advertisement (below). This shows the British musician Duncan Townsend experiencing the extras available in Premium Economy Class for the first time. Brandishing a sound recorder, he combines many different snippets of sound that he hears on his journey into a rhythm, which ultimately evolves into a re-interpreted version of Billy Idolโs โRebel Yellโ: โMore, more, more…โ
Lufthansa will introduce its new Premium Economy Class on December 1 on the following routes from Frankfurt: Beijing, Buenos Aires, Chicago O’Hare, Hong Kong, Los Angles, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Seoul and Washington Dulles.
Copyright Photo Below: Bjoern Schmitt/AirlinersGallery.com. A dramatic view of Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-830 D-ABYI (msn 37833) on final approach to the runway at Los Angeles International Airport over the parking lot.
Lufthansa (Frankfurt) will assign the newer Boeing 747-800 Intercontinental on the Frankfurt-New York (JFK) route from July 15 through October 25. The 747-8I will replace an older 747-400 with daily service according to Airline Route.
Lufthansa received its first 747-830 (D-ABYA) on April 25, 2012 and introduced the new type on the Frankfurt-Washingon (Dulles) route on June 1, 2012 as we have previously reported.
Copyright Photo: Bernhard Ross/AirlinersGallery.com. Wearing the special Fanhansa titles in support for the current 2014 World Cup, Boeing 747-830 D-ABYO (msn 37841) awaits its next assignment at the Frankfurt hub.
Lufthansa (Frankfurt) and Boeing (Chicago and Seattle) celebrated the delivery of the German airline’s 75th 747 on Wednesday (April 30).
Lufthansa is the launch customer for the 747-8 Intercontinental jetliner and took delivery of the first one in April 2012. The airplane delivered Wednesday is Lufthansa’s 13th 747-8 Intercontinental, namely 747-830 D-ABYO (msn 37841). The airline currently flies the 747 to 22 destinations in 10 countries. Over the years, Lufthansa has ordered a total of 81 747s.
Lufthansa’s first 747 โ a 747-100 โ was delivered in 1970. The airline was also the first to order the 747-200 Freighter.
The 747-8 has accumulated 120 orders for passenger and cargo versions, 68 of which have been delivered.
Top Copyright Photo: Boeing. This poor-quality publicity photo shows D-ABYO departing from Paine Field.
Lufthansa:ย
Bottom Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum/AirlinersGallery.com. It all started with the Boeing 747-130. The pictured Boeing 747-130 D-ABYA (msn 19746) at New York (JFK) was delivered new to LH as the first 747 on March 10, 1970.
Boeing (Chicago and Seattle) yesterday (January 29) revealed a 747-8 Freighter (N770BA) painted in the livery of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. The livery commemorates the team’s National Football Conference Championship and upcoming appearance in Super Bowl XLVIII.
Boeing is a sponsor of the Seattle Seahawks and has partnered with the team for more than a decade on programs in the Puget Sound area.
“The Seahawks have been an inspiration to our entire community throughout this incredible season,” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEOย Ray Conner. “We’re honored that we could join together two Northwest icons, the Seahawks and the 747, for this special salute from the entire Boeing team.”
This 747-8 is owned by Boeing and currently being used for flight testing. The special livery features the distinctive Seahawks logo and a “12” on the tail to salute the team’s fans. The airplane will make its first flight in its new livery onย Thurs., January 30.
“The 747 team is proud that one of our airplanes could be used as a tribute to the Seahawks’ success this season and a rallying cry for the team as they prepare for the Super Bowl,” saidย Eric Lindblad, vice president and general manager, 747 program, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “The partnerships we have with the Seahawks and others are making a positive difference in the communities where Boeing employees live and work. We join with all Seahawks fans in wishing the team success on Sunday.”
Boeing 747-8 Seahawks Livery Fun Facts
Seattle Seahawks quarterbackย Russell Wilson’sย longest pass this season, 80 yards (240 ft.), was almost the same length as a 747-8 fuselage (243.5 ft.)
Russell Wilsonย threw for 3,357 yards (10,071 ft.) this season, similar to the runway takeoff distance for a 747-8 (10,650 ft.)
Seattle Seahawks wide receiverย Percy Harvinย can dash the full length of the 747-8 main deck, 180 ft., in less than seven seconds
Seattle Seahawks running backย Marshawn Lynchย can squat with 16 economy seats (30 lbs. per seat)
A 747-8 Freighter can carry 121 million Skittles candies, or 302,400 one lb. bags
It would take 144 747-8 passenger airplanes (Intercontinentals) to carry all the Seahawks fans in CenturyLink Field (67,000 seats)
The 747-8 can cover the length of a football field in one second at takeoff
Seahawks fans’ Guinness World Record for crowd noise is approximately 38 times louder than the 747-8 at departure
On January 30ย the Boeing Seattle Seahawks 747 took to the skies overย Washingtonย in advance of the team’s appearance Sundayย in Super Bowl XLVIII.
The airplane’s flight pattern took it pastย Seattleย landmarks including the Space Needle and CenturyLink Field, home of the Seahawks. The 747-8 then flew overย Eastern Washingtonย in a pattern that formedย the number “12,”ย a salute to all Seahawks’ fans.
“You may remember that we drew a ‘747’ over the continentalย United Statesย during 747-8 certification flight testing,” said Boeing 747 chief pilot Mark Feuerstein “Although the ’12’ is smaller in scale, the pride and sense of community behind it make it feel just as big for the entire Boeing team.”
Boeing is a sponsor of the Seattle Seahawks and has partnered with the team for more than a decade on programs in the Puget Sound area.
Copyright Photo: Boeing. Boeing 747-87UF N770BA (msn 37564) pushes out of the paint shop at rainy Paine Field.
Boeing (Chicago) has announced it has received certification for the new 747-8 Intercontinental from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Certification clears the way for delivery of the new airplane early next year.
The FAA presented Boeing an Amended Type Certificate (ATC) and the amended Production Certificate for Boeing’s newest passenger airplane, the 747-8 Intercontinental Wednesday (December 14).
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is expected to issue its ATC for the airplane today (December 15). Boeing received its FAA and EASA certificates for the 747-8 Freighter in August.
The certificates validate that the design of the 747-8 Intercontinental is compliant with all aviation regulatory requirements and the production system can produce a safe and reliable airplane, conforming to the airplane’s design.
The 747 program is now in the final stages of preparing to deliver the first 747-8 Intercontinental early next year.
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