Lufthansa Technik is to use as a training device a Boeing 737 decommissioned by its parent carrier.

The 737-500 (registration D-ABIA, MSN 24815) was manufactured in 1990 and has logged some 50,600h over nearly 45,300 cycles. Yesterday, it operated its last flight, from Frankfurt to Hamburg, where it will be kept in fully operational condition and used by the Lufthansa Technik's technical training arm to acquaint apprentices and junior engineers with a "live" aircraft, says the MRO provider.

Lufthansa Technical Training is already using a decommissioned 737-500 at the group's base in Frankfurt. That aircraft has likewise been kept in a fully operational condition and was used for the certification of the semi-robotic, pilot-controlled TaxiBot tractor last year.

In Hamburg, the MRO provider used a former Lufthansa 707 for technical training until the late 1990s. That aircraft was then transferred to the city's airport as an exhibit and training device for emergency services.

Source: Cirium Dashboard