Lufthansa Group is making significant changes to the fleet modernisation plans of its member airlines. While SWISS intends to eventually retire its entire Airbus A220 fleet and base its European operations on the A320 family, Austrian Airlines will no longer receive five new Boeing 787-9s previously allocated to the carrier. The decisions come as Europe’s largest airline group faces aircraft delivery delays, rising operating costs and the need to distribute capacity more efficiently among its airlines.

One of the most significant changes affects Austrian Airlines, which had planned to operate 12 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners by the end of 2028. The new aircraft were intended to gradually replace the carrier’s existing Boeing 767s and 777s, representing the largest long-haul fleet modernisation programme in Austrian’s history. However, Lufthansa Group has now decided to reallocate five brand-new Dreamliners, originally scheduled for delivery from late 2027, to other airlines within the group.

The development was reported by aviation news outlet aeroTELEGRAPH, which received confirmation of the revised plans from Austrian Airlines. The carrier currently operates four Boeing 787-9s, the first two of which entered service in 2024 after previously flying for Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways. Two additional aircraft were transferred from Lufthansa during 2026, while another three from the parent airline’s existing fleet are expected to arrive in 2027. Austrian’s Dreamliner fleet is therefore expected to grow to seven aircraft, but without the five brand-new examples previously announced.

The decision has direct consequences for the retirement of Austrian’s ageing Boeing 777-200ER fleet. The airline has confirmed that these aircraft will remain in service until at least the end of 2029 or early 2030, although they were initially due to be replaced by new Dreamliners. Austrian has not ruled out an alternative solution for renewing its long-haul fleet, but no details have been provided regarding what such an arrangement might involve.

Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr has further explained the reasons behind the Dreamliner reallocation. According to Spohr, Lufthansa itself currently has a greater need for the five Boeing 787-9s to compensate for the consequences of the repeated delays affecting the Boeing 777X programme. The German flag carrier now expects its first Boeing 777-9s in 2027, forcing it to adjust its existing fleet renewal plans. Spohr indicated that the measure could be temporary and that other Dreamliners might eventually be allocated to Austrian.

However, future investments in Austrian Airlines are also linked to the economic conditions under which the carrier operates. Spohr has made further investment dependent on reaching agreements with the Austrian government and Vienna Airport regarding operating costs. Austrian has repeatedly highlighted high airport charges and tax burdens, while its adjusted operating profit for the first nine months of 2026 fell by 37% to €48 million, despite a 7% increase in revenue. Such results make major fleet investments more difficult to justify within a group where new aircraft are allocated according to operational and financial priorities.

Meanwhile, SWISS is preparing equally significant changes, having decided to eventually withdraw the Airbus A220 from its fleet entirely. The Swiss carrier had previously announced the retirement of all nine A220-100s, but the plan has now been extended to its remaining 21 A220-300s. SWISS Chief Financial Officer Dennis Weber explained during the presentation of the airline’s nine-month financial results that the company intends to simplify its European fleet and gradually concentrate on Airbus A320 family aircraft.

The retirement of the smaller A220-100 is already underway. The final four aircraft are expected to remain in service during the 2027 summer schedule before being withdrawn at the beginning of the 2027/2028 winter season. The decision has been partly driven by persistent availability problems affecting the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G engines, which have restricted the operational availability of part of the fleet in recent years. Some A220-100s are already being used as sources of engines and other components for the remaining aircraft.

There is currently no specific retirement date for the 21 larger A220-300s. According to Weber, their withdrawal is only being considered for the 2030s, as the aircraft are still relatively young and can remain in operation for several more years. SWISS is also considering the possibility of transferring them to other Lufthansa Group airlines or selling them to interested operators.

The decision is particularly notable because SWISS was the launch operator of the A220, originally known as the Bombardier CSeries. The first commercial CS100 flight took place on July 15, 2016, between Zurich and Paris. Despite a decade of experience with the type, the airline now believes that the long-term benefits of fleet standardisation outweigh those of maintaining a separate A220 family. Operating different aircraft families requires additional pilot and maintenance training, separate spare parts inventories and more complex maintenance arrangements.

The changes are not limited to SWISS’s European fleet. The Swiss carrier is also gradually modernising its long-haul operations with the introduction of the Airbus A350-900. Its older A340s are expected to leave the fleet by early 2028, while the A330s, despite receiving cabin upgrades, will also be replaced in the longer term. The Boeing 777-300ER, meanwhile, remains a key part of SWISS’s long-haul operations, with no immediate retirement planned.

However, SWISS’s decision to abandon the A220 does not mean Lufthansa Group is losing interest in the aircraft. On the contrary, Lufthansa City Airlines is preparing to introduce its first A220-300 in early 2027, following a slight delay in the delivery of its first aircraft, registered D-ACAA. The group has ordered 40 A220-300s for the carrier, with options for another 20. The new aircraft will feature 148 seats and will primarily operate European routes from Frankfurt and Munich, gradually replacing older Airbus A319s.

This distribution of aircraft points towards a broader shift in Lufthansa Group’s fleet strategy. There are growing indications that the group is seeking to simplify and increasingly standardise the fleets of its mainline network carriers, namely Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, while progressively organising smaller-aircraft and regional operations through dedicated airlines specialising in feeding passengers into its major hubs.

Air Dolomiti and Lufthansa City Airlines already fulfil such roles, operating European and regional services that provide connectivity to Lufthansa Group’s long-haul network. Although City Airlines also operates aircraft as large as the A320, its principal role is to take over part of the group’s short-haul operations and provide feeder traffic to the Frankfurt and Munich hubs. Such an arrangement allows the mainline carriers to focus more heavily on higher-capacity aircraft operations, while potentially reducing fleet complexity and operating costs.

This does not represent an officially confirmed plan to completely standardise the fleets of all Lufthansa Group airlines, but rather a direction suggested by recent decisions. The withdrawal of the A220 from SWISS, substantial investments in the same aircraft type for Lufthansa City Airlines, and the redistribution of new Boeing 787s among network carriers indicate that Lufthansa increasingly manages its fleet from a group-wide perspective rather than exclusively according to the requirements of individual airlines.

In the longer term, this approach could further distinguish the roles of the group’s mainline network airlines from those responsible for regional and feeder services. It could also enable greater flexibility in aircraft allocation, more efficient use of crews and infrastructure, and improved cost control, particularly at a time when the availability of new aircraft remains constrained.

The latest decisions also demonstrate the increasingly centralised nature of fleet management within Lufthansa Group, where individual airlines are not necessarily guaranteed to receive aircraft previously earmarked for them. With Airbus and Boeing production and delivery schedules continuing to face challenges, available new aircraft have become a valuable resource that can be reassigned wherever the group expects to achieve the greatest operational and financial benefits. For SWISS, this means gradually saying goodbye to the aircraft that introduced a new era of regional aviation a decade ago, while for Austrian it means extending the service life of its ageing long-haul fleet and facing renewed uncertainty over its future modernisation plans.