Browsing Tag: Lufthansa

Lufthansa's Airbus A380 (D-AIMD) gets a water salute when arriving to San Francisco on May 10th.

Lufthansa's Airbus A380 (D-AIMD) gets a water salute when arriving to San Francisco on May 10th.

Today was a beautiful day to fly down to San Francisco (SFO) to greet the Lufthansa’s first Airbus A380 passenger flight from Frankfurt, Germany to SFO.

The Airbus A380 is the largest passenger airliner made and it’s closest competitor will be the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, when it makes it to the market. I have been able to catch a glimpse of a Qantas Airbus A380 while in LAX, but this was my first time to get up close and personal. I do not think the A380 is as majestic as the Boeing 747, but she is very impressive for sure.

The event is a big deal for the airline and the city. San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee has officially declared May 10, 2011, as  “Lufthansa German Airlines Day.” Pretty cool when an airline gets an official city day. I am not sure it really means anything, but still neat.

The airport had to make very little updates to prepare for the A380, since the International Terminal was designed with the A380 in mind and it fit with no problems.

Lufthansa already has taken delivery of seven A380’s with an additional 15 on order.

As part of the event, we got a tour of the interior of the A380 and I will be posting that story tomorrow.

 

The second Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental (named RC021) took to the skies on April 26th and Boeing has just release their official video.

This 747-8I is special, since it will be the first Intercontinental to actually enter passenger service and will be delivered to Lufthansa Airlines. The first (RC001), which first took off on March 20th, will be going to a private buyer.

As reported earlier, even though this Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental will be going to Lufthansa, it does not have the full livery since the aircraft is going through flight testing. However, I have heard rumors that a full liveried Lufthansa Boeing 747-8I might be coming out of the paint hangar sometime this summer.

Yesterday was a big day for Lufthansa and the Airbus A380. The airline started its first scheduled flight of the A380 to the United States. The flight from Frankfurt to New York’s JFK is the fourth Airbus A380 route for the airline, after Tokyo, Beijing and Johannesburg.

’œIn early 2007, Lufthansa and Airbus jointly landed the first Airbus A380 on U.S. soil, here in New York during a route-proving flight to North America. Now we are returning with scheduled A380 flight operation. New York is one of the most important markets for Lufthansa, so it was imperative for us to launch transatlantic flights on our flagship aircraft to this U.S. gateway,’ said Jens Bischof, Vice President The Americas for Lufthansa. ’œWe are proud to offer New Yorkers the option to experience this amazing aircraft, combined with Lufthansa’s award-winning service, thus taking the flying experience in all three classes to a whole new level,’ Bischof continued.

Although this is the first Lufthansa Airbus A380 flight to the US, this won’t be the last. The airline has already announced their plans to fly from Frankfurt to San Fransisco starting on May 10, 2011. According to ATI and Flight Global, the airline states the recent issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines will not affect the delivery schedule of the A380. The airline plans to increase their A380 fleet to eight by mid-summer.

With increasing the number of A380’s and being the first customer of the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, Lufthansa is quickly working on having one of the best aircraft fleets in the world.

Currently there aren’t too many Airbus A380 flights to and from the US. Dan Jones with the site Route Watch, walked me through the current flights:

JFK in New York:
Emirates from Dubai (DXB) as UAE201 daily
Lufthansa from Frankfurt (FRA) as DLH400 not daily, only A380-800 on Mon and Fri after March 27
Air France from Paris (CDG) as AFR006 not daily, Tue and Wed are 777-300ER (77W)
Korean to be 3x weekly starting in August going to daily in September as KAL81

LAX in Los Angeles:
Qantas from Sydney (SYD) as QFA11 daily
Singapore starting March 27 will upgrade SIA11 SIN-NRT-LAX to the A380
Korean to be daily starting October 1st as KAL17

SFO in San Fransisco:
Lufthansa starting May 10 as DLH454

Want more photos and video? Then check these out:
* Simpliflying’s coverage of the event
* Flight Global’s photos and video
* Runway Girl takes a look at the A380’s in flight entertainment
* Photos from NYC Aviation

 

The first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental caught outside in the natural light after being pulled out of the factory.

The first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental caught outside in the natural light after being pulled out of the factory.

Hot damn! That was a big shocker. I was wondering what the livery of the first Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental would look like and I wasn’t guessing orange. I thought maybe the standard livery, the light livery, Lufthansa’s colors, Boeing Business Jet or possibly even Air Force One. I think the choice surprised everyone. Boeing is calling it the “Sunrise Livery.” Kudos to Boeing for being able to keep this cat in the bag for so long.

The event today was quite the scene. Great speakers, music and lighting. Although, the smoke and lights made photography a little tricky.

I have to say the color choice is gorgeous. I don’t think the real beauty comes out in the photos. The paint is metallic, so up close it really sparkles. So why orange right? Directly from Boeing: “The airplane unveiled today is painted in a new Sunrise livery of red-orange that only will appear on the first 747-8 Intercontinental and is a significant departure from Boeing’s standard blue. The new color palette honors many key Boeing customers whose cultures recognize these colors as symbols of prosperity and good luck.” Either way, she is one beautiful airplane and I cannot wait to see her fly.

As of now, the first flight is scheduled for Spring 2011. Since the Boeing 747-8 Freighter has been going through so many different flight tests, the additional tests for the 747-8 Intercontinental won’t be as intensive. This aircraft (N6067E) will be painted in the Sunrise Boeing livery during flight tests. It then will be painted to the customer’s livery before delivery. Of course, there is still no word who the owner of the first aircraft will be. There were representatives from Lufthansa and Korean Air present at the ceremony. Currently Lufthansa has 20 orders for the 747-8I and Korean Air has five.

UPDATE 5:00pm:
Just got to watch as the first 747-8I was pulled out of the factory and parked at the fuel dock. It was very nice seeing it in the natural light and I think these photos better represent what the aircraft looks like in person. During the event people were talking about the livering having red and that was difficult to see. Outside, you could clearly see the red and orange on the body and near-neon orange of the tail. It is one long plane and beautiful plane. Boeing just tweeted one from the ground that looks great and  I added seven more photos…

CHECK OUT ALL 29 PHOTOS FROM THE BOEING 747-8 INTERCONTINENTAL UNVEILING AND GOING OUTSIDE!

One Dreamlifter and two Airbus A380's sharing a hangar.

One Dreamlifter and two Airbus A380's sharing a hangar. (click for larger)

Oh yes! Now this is totally amazing airplane eye candy of the largest scale. One Boeing 747 Dreamlifter (N780BA) parked between not just one, but two Airbus A380’s inside Lufthansa Technik’s Fankfurt hangar. A big tip of the hat to Jon Ostrower on his blog FlightBlogger for sharing this amazing photo (check his blog for more information on the airplanes).