Lufthansa Group’s executive board has recommended a purchase of 108 new aircraft, which will be scheduled for delivery between 2015 and 2025.
The specific aircraft models have not yet been confirmed, and it’s also not clear how many of the aircraft would be assigned to each carrier within the Lufthansa Group.
Lufthansa said that it was in “ongoing discussions with the respective manufacturers about the specific aircraft types under consideration”, and confirmed that the total would be split between 100 short and medium-haul aircraft and eight long-haul planes.
Lufthansa said that the total order will have a list price of around €9 billion, and that added to existing orders the Lufthansa Group expects to take delivery of a total of 239 aircraft by the end of 2025.
The announcement comes as the Lufthansa Group revealed its financial results for 2012, posting an operating profit of €524 million (down 36.1 per cent on the previous year’s profit of €820 million), which included a one-off payment of €115 million from the partial transfer of Austrian Airlines’ flight operations to Tyrolean Airways.
The group’s revenue rose by 5 per cent in 2012 to €30.1 billion from €28.7 billion during the previous year.
Lufthansa AG’s CEO Christoph Franz said: “Profitability for an airline is not simply a given in the present industry environment, it is a good performance.
“In order to successfully meet the changes in the aviation industry, however, we need to perform even better.
“Only then can we create the necessary scope for the measures we need to take to shape the future of the Lufthansa Group ourselves. A net profit driven by one-off effects must not mislead us into disregarding the pressure to act.”
Lufthansa said that it is “continuing to make headway” with its earnings improvement programme, with the planned closure of Lufthansa AG’s Cologne head office by the end of 2017.
The company added: “As part of the restructuring of the regional segment of Lufthansa’s passenger business, Lufthansa Cityline is examining the possibility of relocating its headquarters from Cologne to Munich in the light of considerations to merge Lufthansa Cityline’s administrative headquarters and the airline’s operational base in Munich”.
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