German flag-carrier Lufthansa is to take delivery of its first Airbus A380 on 19 May, and is to conduct a series of trial flights across Europe for pilot training.

The first aircraft will initially be used for flight training at Karlsruhe on 31 May, and Leipzig the next day.

Line training will continue on 2 June with a series of flights taking the jet from Frankfurt to Stuttgart, Zurich, Vienna, Dresden, Linz and Munich.

Lufthansa says it will conduct a similar exercise the following day, from Frankfurt to Berlin Tegel, Hannover, Hamburg, Bremen, Dusseldorf and Cologne.

Pilots destined for the A380 fleet will undertake a month's simulator training in addition to the trial flights.

While Lufthansa has yet to fix its route network for the type, it is already planning to carry out a service to Johannesburg on 6 June to transport the German football team to the World Cup tournament in South Africa.

Lufthansa A380
 © Lufthansa

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news