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Lufthansa maintains largest passenger Boeing 747 fleet as other airlines retire quadjets

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Lufthansa maintains largest passenger Boeing 747 fleet as other airlines retire quadjets
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Carsten Spohr Chief Executive Officer | Lufthansa Group

Lufthansa continues to operate one of the largest fleets of Boeing 747 aircraft, maintaining its role as a major operator of the iconic widebody quadjet at a time when many airlines are retiring such models in favor of more efficient twinjets. The German flag carrier, a founding member of Star Alliance, currently has 27 Boeing 747s in its fleet. This includes eight older 747-400s and 19 newer 747-8 aircraft.

The average age of Lufthansa's Boeing 747-400s is 25.5 years, compared to an overall fleet average age of 13.7 years. These jets are configured with 67 business class seats, 32 premium economy seats, and 272 economy seats. The airline’s newer Boeing 747-8s have an average age of just under 12 years and feature four-class cabins with eight first class seats, 80 in business, 32 in premium economy, and 244 in economy.

Lufthansa is also updating its aircraft interiors. As stated by the airline in March: "Since February, nine A350-900s with the new cabin interior have already been flying for Lufthansa, eight of them with the new First Class. Almost half a million passengers in all classes have now enjoyed the new cabin. This year, the retrofitting of the existing fleet with Lufthansa Allegris will commence, beginning with the Boeing 747-8."

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According to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, Lufthansa scheduled a total of 754 flights using its Boeing 747-8s for September 2025—the same number as last year—offering nearly identical seat capacity but seeing a slight decrease (3.9%) in available seat miles compared to September 2024. This suggests that some routes served by these aircraft are shorter than those flown previously.

In September, Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-8 operates daily flights from Frankfurt Airport to destinations including Buenos Aires, Chicago, Houston, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Miami, Newark, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Tokyo Haneda, and Washington DC. The exception is Frankfurt to New York JFK which sees only 17 flights during the month.

The airline's use of the older Boeing 747-400 has increased compared to last year. For September this year there are plans for 266 flights offering nearly 99,000 seats—a rise over last year's figures—with corresponding increases in available seat miles as well. The main hub for these departures remains Frankfurt Airport. For this variant too New York is not served daily; instead there are only thirteen flights scheduled between Frankfurt and JFK using the -400 model this month on days when it is not operated by another variant.

Elsewhere Lufthansa flies its Boeing 747-400 daily from Frankfurt to Bengaluru Singapore Toronto and Vancouver ensuring continued deployment across long-haul international routes.

Organizations Included in this History
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