Lufthansa has successfully delivered on Thursday the first of three latest Airbus A350-900 for the Special Air Mission Wing of Germany's Federal Ministry of Defence.
The new aircraft will fly Germany's high-ranking public officials around the globe, including Chancellor Angela Merkel. Germany made the order for the advanced planes in 2019 as a replacement to its old fleet of Airbus A340-300s that have been in service since 2011, Airbus and planespotters.net disclosed.
German Defence Minister A. Kramp-Karrenbauer was among special guests during the handover ceremony in Hamburg. Germany has become the first country to operate an Airbus A350 for government use, the Ministry of Defence said. The aircraft is the only A350 in the world that is not used commercially.
According to Dr. Johannes Bussmann, Lufthansa Executive Board chairman, they are happy to present to Bundeswehr - Germany's armed forces - the latest flagship of the country's SAMW, "the world's first Airbus A350 as a government aircraft."
Airbus said the German government will benefit from the next-generation plane's efficiency by trading in four engines for two and have more range capacity of roughly 800 nautical miles - much like the country's flag carrier Lufthansa - that has made great efforts to custom-build the plane's VIP interiors.
The purchase of Germany's new "Air Force One" came last year following a series of mechanical glitches with the current VIP service jet, one of which had to land moments after the flight because of a mechanical problem that forced Merkel to fly commercial en route to the G20 Summit in Argentina in 2018.
The plane will not be hitting the skies anytime soon, as it has to undergo multiple test flights and certification by German military aviators, Lufthansa said.
The Airbus A350 features a transitional cabin that will be upgraded to a full-fledged Lufthansa-designed state cabin next year.
At the moment, the other two planes - referred to as 10+01 and 10+02 - are still on the assembly lines. As Germany is the hub to several Airbus manufacturing facilities, components of the aircraft were even made in the country, though the last stages of the production occurred in France.
