A320neo BRAND NEW 2nd of Lufthansa: Startup, Taxi and stunning Take Off D-AINB! [AirClips]
This is the second
Airbus A320neo in commercial operations with
Lufthansa.
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.