Lufthansa intends to retire its last remaining Boeing 737s in October, some 48 years after the German carrier became the type's launch operator.

The replacement is part of a fleet simplification to reduce the number of aircraft types across Lufthansa Group, said chief executive Carsten Spohr at a Star Alliance event in Zurich on 4 June.

Phasing out the BAE Systems Avro RJ and Fokker 100/70 regional jets at Swiss and Austrian Airlines, respectively, are part of the same effort, adds Spohr.

The three mainlines have narrowbody fleets comprising Airbus A320-family models, but deploy different manufacturers' types on regional routes.

Flightglobal's Fleets Analyzer database shows that Lufthansa operates seven 737-300s today.

In 1993 – as Lufthansa replaced its 737-200s with Classic-generation 737s – the carrier operated 110 aircraft from the narrowbody family.

Lufthansa was the 737-100's launch operator in 1968. Only 30 aircraft of the initial variant were built.

Source: Cirium Dashboard