The latest agreement brings Lufthansa Group’s total order for the A320neo to 122 - 77 A320neo and 45 A321neo.
In addition, the airline has signed an order for three more A320ceo, bringing the group’s A320ceo orders to 273.
With a total of 395 A320 Family aircraft on order, the Lufthansa Group is also Airbus’ biggest A320 operator with nearly 400 A320 Family aircraft in service.
Lufthansa was the launch operator of the A320neo.
We are delighted to see this additional order from our biggest A320 operator Lufthansa Group, said Eric Schulz, Airbus Chief Commercial Officer.
Benefitting from the Airbus commonality and the A320 Family’s efficiency and environmental credentials such as reduced noise, lower fuel-burn and emissions, we are pleased the airline has decided to come back for more.
The Airbus A320neo family is a development of the A320 family of narrow-body airliners, launched on 1 December 2010 by Airbus.
They are essentially a re-engine; neo stands for new engine option, with a choice of CFM International LEAP-1A or Pratt & Whitney PW1000G engines. The original family is now called A320ceo, for current engine option.
The first flight of the A320neo took place on 25 September 2014. It was introduced by Lufthansa on 25 January 2016. Airbus has 6,031 firm orders as of March 2018.
The new aircraft cabin offers a more modern look and feel, a new air purifier with filters and a catalytic converter removing unpleasant smells from the air before it is pumped into the cabin and light-emitting diodes for ambience lighting and passenger service unit.
It offers better and larger luggage storage. The flight crew controls the cabin through touchscreen displays.
The new Space-Flex optional cabin configuration increases space-efficiency by a new rear galley configuration and a Smart-Lav modular lavatory design allowing an in-flight change of two lavatories into one accessible toilet.
This allows up to 9 more passengers for the A320neo, and up to 20 more passengers for the A321neo without putting more sardines in the can with the larger Cabin-Flex modified exits.
Lufthansa is the launch operator of this standard variant. The first A320neo rolled out of the Airbus factory in Toulouse on 1 July 2014.
It first flew 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.
Nearly 28 years after the first A320, on 25 January 2016, the A320neo entered service with Lufthansa, the type's launch customer.
Six months later at Farnborough Airshow, John Leahy reported that the eight in-service aircraft had achieved 99.7% dispatch reliability.
After a year in service, Lufthansa confirmed the 20% efficiency gain per passenger with up to 180 seats, along with reduced noise and CO₂ emissions.
By the end of February 2017, 28,105 scheduled flights had been performed by 71 A320neo aircraft with 134 cancellations for a 99.5% completion rate.
Spirit faces Pratt & Whitney PW1000G issues on four of its five A320neos and don't fly them above 30,000 ft because the bleed air system froze shut on occasion due to cold temperatures, the same problem facing IndiGo.
By March 2017, 88 A320neos had been delivered to 20 airlines, 49 with the PW1000G and 39 with the CFM International LEAP-1A.
The fleet had accumulated more than 57,600 flight hours and 37,500 cycles (1.5h average); over 142 routes the average stage length is 900 nm and like the A320ceo the neo flies an average of 8.4 block hours and up to 10 cycles a day with Lufthansa operating 45 min. sectors from Frankfurt to Hamburg or Munich to China Southern Airlines flying close to 6 hr sectors.
Operators confirm the 15% per seat fuel-burn savings even counterbalanced by the added weight on short sectors, which can rise to 16–17% on longer routes and to 20% or more for Lufthansa with 180 passengers up from 168 with two more seat rows; and Airbus plans to deliver about 200 A320neos.
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