Lufthansa Group chief Carsten Spohr says the operator is unaffected by the latest delay to the Boeing 777-9’s entry into service, and also believes a US certification hold-up on its new 787 interiors will ease by the year-end.
Speaking during the company’s third-quarter briefing on 30 October, Spohr said Lufthansa “never expected” the aircraft to be in commercial operation during 2026.
“We are scheduling the aircraft earliest in summer [2027], so there’s no need yet to make any changes to our plans so far,” he says. “We’ll see where it goes from here.”
Boeing disclosed the previous day that the 777-9’s initial deliveries had been pushed back from 2026 to 2027 – the latest postponement for the programme which was already running six years late.
While Spohr says “long-awaited” aircraft deliveries and “extensive product improvements” on its long-haul fleet are “finally picking up speed”, the company has yet to obtain US certification for the Allegris business-class seats on its 787s.
Lufthansa took delivery of its first 787-9 with the Allegris cabin at Frankfurt in August, with a second in September.
But it has been unable to release a number of the Collins Aerospace business seats for sale owing to US certification delays.
Spohr says the US government shutdown, which began on 1 October, is delaying deliveries, and the carrier no longer expects to receive 10 aircraft this year, but “probably around eight”.
He points out, however, that the airline has scheduled to fly six. “That’s the minimum we’d need to achieve not to have any changes in our published schedules,” he adds.
“And we’re pretty optimistic to be above six – as I said, eight is probably the most likely shot as of today.”
The government shutdown is not delaying Allegris certification by the US FAA, states Spohr.
“This is basically all paperwork which has to be done, so we’re still confident to get that done by the end of the year,” he says.
“But we’ve all learned there’s always question marks when it comes to the triangle between Boeing, Collins and the FAA.”
Spohr says the carrier’s US team is still indicating that an end-of-year certification “is feasible”.
“Then maybe even the last [787] would already arrive with unblocked seats,” he says. “And quickly afterwards we can unblock the seats of the aircraft which are already across the pond in Europe.”
