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Lufthansa order launches Boeing 747-8I
By Sebastian Steinke
Boeing's first Christmas presents arrived early this year, on 6 December, when Lufthansa finally committed to an order for the recently revised and slightly stretched Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental (see FLUG REVUE 1/2007), thus becoming the launch customer Boeing had been longing for. With 20 firm orders and a further 20 purchase rights, Lufthansa ordered aircraft with a list price value no less than $5.5 billion.
The airline had left Boeing in suspense right up to the last moment. Only twenty minutes before the final announcement of the order, which had been delayed several times, did the aircraft manufacturer dare to issue invitations to the press conference in a smart club in the city centre of Seattle and hook up foreign journalists over the phone. The event only got under way after Lufthansa had followed the protocol of first informing the stock market officially of the imminent huge order.
Explaining the late start in an interview with FLUG REVUE directly before the press conference in Seattle, Nico Buchholz, Senior Vice President Corporate Fleet and the most senior aircraft buyer for the German airline, said, “Our Lufthansa Supervisory Board convened three hours ago, at 4pm Frankfurt local time, and it just happened that higher up on the agenda, above the item “aircraft order”, there were several other items which first had to be clarified.”
“Counting all the preliminary rounds of discussions, we have been talking about this package since 2001. But concrete negotiations did not get under way until this year (2006). We have always urged Boeing to build the present long version. The current design is the best possible.”
With “somewhat over 400 seats” (Buchholz) in a three-class configuration, including the new Business Class seats, Lufthansa views the 747-8I as occupying a market segment all of its own, falling between the A340-600 with around 300 seats and the A380, which will offer around 550 seats in a three-class configuration.
On the same day, Lufthansa also placed its second re-order for this Airbus four-engined jet, this time for seven aircraft in a three-class configuration. With this latest development, the German airline will have the distinction of being a launch customers for all three of the biggest passenger aircraft types in the world today, the A340-600, the A380-800 and the 747-8. “The era of the four-engined jet is not over,” said Buchholz. “As far as we are concerned, the central issues are cost and passenger appeal.” Besides, some two-engine types lose a lot of payload when deployed on extremely long routes.
The General Electric GEnx-2B67 to be used on the Boeing 747-8 is closely related from the technical point of view to the engines for the Boeing 787. Does this mean Lufthansa will shortly be placing an order for Boeing's latest twin jet? Nico Buchholz dismisses the idea. “No, these engines should not be viewed as the forerunner to a decision. We are discussing the A350 and the 787 in a separate workgroup.”
Deliveries of the new jumbos will commence in mid-2010 and run through to the end of 2013. “Earlier aircraft orders served mainly to support our growth , but this time it is a matter of growth and replacement,” Buchholz explains, referring to Lufthansa's active inventory of 37 Boeing 747-400's which have been delivered since the summer of 1989. Despite its greater capacity, the Boeing 747-8 apparently consumes no more fuel than the smaller 747-400. On the other hand, it is still too early for a decision about a possible 747-8 freighter order at Lufthansa, as Lufthansa Cargo's MD-11 fleet is still relatively young.
The new jumbos will alternate with the 747-400 on routes as yet unspecified to India, North America and the Far East. Apparently no decisions have yet been made as regards the precise interior furnishings and the question of whether Lufthansa will take up the option of installing the main galley in the rear fuselage overhead space. Again, when it comes to the precise cockpit configuration, although Lufthansa is interested in the “electronic flight bag”, i.e. the introduction of additional computers for moving map displays and extremely accurate performance calculations, the pertinent decisions have still to be made. Buchholz is relaxed about this. “We still have months and years to decide on those issues.”
The fleet expert stresses that the 747-8 has been selected for a long service life with Lufthansa. “Aircraft have to fit the market both today and tomorrow. And that is changing.” The latest 747 order, according to Buchholz, is not a reaction to the A380 delivery delays. On the contrary, Lufthansa has never deviated from Boeing. According to Buchholz, the airline is simply ordering the aircraft type best suited for the Group's requirements at a particular point in time. “The 747-8 meets our requirements to a tee. We wanted an environmentally friendly aircraft which the passengers would like and which would be profitable to operate.”
With an average consumption of 3.5 litres of kerosene per 100 passenger kilometres, the 747-8 is one of the most economic aircraft types in the world. “Without these engines we would not have achieved the performance,” admits Boeing 747 programme manager Dan Mooney. “That was the breakthrough. But the new wing profile is also making a huge difference. With Lufthansa we now have a show customer – which has placed a major order as well. This will increase the credibility of the programme.”
With regard to noise emissions, Boeing is promising a 30 percent smaller noise footprint for the 747-8 compared with the 747-400. This will mean that the 747-8 meets the stringent QC2 noise standards in force at London Heathrow. Carbon dioxide emissions will also be 16 percent lower compared with the previous model.
Did Lufthansa get a special launch customer discount? “They got a good deal,” replies Larry Dickinson, senior vice president of sales at Boeing, in a significant way, already scenting an opportunity. “Half of all the 747's are 747-400's. Most of them are flying in Asia. All their operators are candidates for the 747-8. The 747-8 complements the A380 and is not a direct competitor.”
From FLUG REVUE 2/2007
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