This is the world's first and (at the time of this flight) only Airbus A320neo in commercial operations worldwide, captured on its first ever commercial service from Hamburg to Frankfurt. The Airbus A320neo family is a series of airliners developed since December 2010 by Airbus, with the suffix "neo" meaning "new engine option". It is the last step of the A320 Enhanced (A320E) modernisation programme, which was started in 2006. The A320neo replaces the original A320 family, which is now referred to as A320ceo, for "current engine option". In addition to the new engines, the modernisation programme also included such improvements as: aerodynamic refinements, large curved winglets (sharklets), weight savings, a new aircraft cabin with larger hand luggage spaces, and an improved air purification system. Customers will have a choice of either the CFM International LEAP-1A or the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines. These improvements in combination are predicted to result in 15% less fuel consumption per aircraft, 8% lower operating costs, less noise production, and a reduction of nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by at least 10% compared to the A320 series, as well as an increase in range of approximately 500 nautical miles (900 km).[A rearranged cabin allows up to 20 more passengers enabling in total over 20% less fuel consumption per seat. Airbus has firm orders for the A320neo family totalling 4,471 as of December 2015.[10] The first A320neo rolled out of the Airbus factory in Toulouse on 1 July 2014.The first flight of the aircraft took place on 25 September 2014. A joint type certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration was received on 24 November 2015. On 25 January 2016, the A320neo entered service with Lufthansa, the type's launch customer Deutsche Lufthansa AG, commonly known as Lufthansa (sometimes also as Lufthansa German Airlines), is the de facto flag carrier of Germany and also the largest airline in Europe, both in terms of overall passengers carried and fleet size when combined with its subsidiaries. It operates services to 18 domestic destinations and 197 international destinations in 78 countries across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, using a fleet of more than 280 aircraft. Besides the actual airline named Lufthansa, Deutsche Lufthansa AG is also the parent company for several other airlines and further aviation-related branches, including Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Germanwings and Lufthansa Technik. With over 620 aircraft, it has one of the largest passenger airline fleets in the world when combined with its subsidiaries. In 2012, the entire Lufthansa Group carried over 103 million passengers. Lufthansa's registered office and corporate headquarters are in Cologne. The main operations base, called Lufthansa Aviation Center (LAC), is located at Lufthansa's primary traffic hub at Frankfurt Airport. The majority of Lufthansa's pilots, ground staff, and flight attendants are based there. Lufthansa's secondary hub is Munich Airport with a third, considerably smaller one maintained at Düsseldorf Airport which transfers to Germanwings, so Lufthansa only operates just around 10 destinations (excluding seasonal) which all have been transferred to Germanwings. Lufthansa is one of the five founding members of the Star Alliance, the world's largest airline alliance, formed in 1997. Having been a state-owned enterprise until 1994, the majority of Lufthansa's shares are nowadays held by private investors (88.52%), as well as MGL Gesellschaft für Luftverkehrswerte (10.05%), Deutsche Postbank (1.03%), and Deutsche Bank (0.4%). Since 1970, Lufthansa has involved its employees in profit sharing, giving them the opportunity to choose between cash and preference shares. When Lufthansa was privatised, employees received more than 3% of its shares.

• published: 28 Jan 2016
• views: 11890