Lufthansa Group is to buy 22 "latest-generation" long-haul aircraft from Airbus and Boeing.
The orders, for ten Airbus A350-1000s, five Airbus A350-900s and seven Boeing 787-9s, will come to $7.5bn based on current list prices, the German carrier group said.
The 22 jets are part of a bigger set of orders "over the next years" for 108 long-haul aircraft and around 200 airplanes in all, as the group's carriers withdraw six older subfleets "in the medium term".
Lufthansa said it expects to receive the first of the 22 aircraft by the middle of the decade but added that it is "also in advanced negotiations to acquire further long-haul aircraft which could be made available at shorter notice". Airbus and Boeing had by the end of 2022 a combined production backlog of around 11,000 aircraft or airframes.
" These new aircraft will also play a decisive role in helping us achieve our carbon emission reduction goals by 2030 as fuel-efficient aircraft which incorporate the latest manufacturing technology are by far the greatest lever for providing more climate protection within the aviation sector," newly-reappointed chief executive Carsten Spohr said on March 2, two days after Lufthansa was told by the UK's advertising standards authority to pull an ad over misleading climate-related claims.
Airbus and Lufthansa in the meantime agreed to "further strengthen cooperation in the field of sustainability and future technologies", including "the intensified use of sustainable aviation fuels, the further optimisation of operations through a more efficient flight management and exploration into the use of hydrogen", Lufthansa said.
“We are honoured to see Lufthansa topping up its A350 order book to a total of 60 aircraft, joining the increasing number of A350-1000 customers around the world. With economic and sustainability pressures becoming a measurable reality as international flying increases again, so do the massive advantages of the A350 as the only clean sheet design and therefore the most efficient solution," said Christian Scherer, Airbus’ chief commercial officer and head of International.