Lufthansa has been preparing for the arrival of the Boeing 777-9 for months, although it will have to wait until at least 2027 for its first actual aircraft. Lufthansa Aviation Training in Frankfurt has received the first Boeing 777-9 full-flight simulator ever delivered to an airline group, marking an important step toward introducing the new type into the German carrier’s long-haul fleet.

The simulator arrived in Frankfurt on February 19 this year from Canadian manufacturer CAE’s facility in Montreal. Following its transatlantic journey, it arrived at the Port of Antwerp, with the final leg to the Lufthansa Training Center completed overnight by special heavy road transport.

It is the first Boeing 777-9 Full-Flight Simulator delivered by CAE directly to an airline group. Lufthansa Aviation Training initially announced that installation and commissioning were expected to be completed by the end of May 2026, after which the simulator would be ready for Lufthansa Airlines pilot training. More recent publicly available information from Lufthansa Aviation Training does not provide a separate confirmation of the date on which regular training began, although the simulator has already been incorporated into the Frankfurt training center’s infrastructure under the designation FT77.

The simulator is not a generic training device but is configured to match the specifications of Lufthansa’s future 777-9 fleet. It features a Rockwell Collins EP 8100 visual system, Eyevis ESP-LWQX-2000 projectors and a system capable of realistically simulating smoke in the cockpit. A modern briefing and debriefing station is also located alongside the simulator, allowing crews to prepare before training sessions and conduct detailed analyses afterward.

The arrival of the simulator is particularly interesting because of the significant gap between Lufthansa’s preparations and the actual availability of Boeing’s new aircraft.

When the simulator arrived in Frankfurt, Lufthansa Aviation Training was already indicating that the airline’s first 777-9 was not expected to join the fleet until mid-2027. This means the simulator arrived in Germany more than a year before the aircraft it was designed to replicate.

The delay is by no means a Lufthansa-specific problem. The 777X has become one of the longest-running development programs in Boeing’s recent history. The first 777-9 delivery was originally scheduled for 2020, but certification and entry into service have been postponed several times over the years. Boeing said in July that the program had made significant progress and was approaching the final stages of certification activities, with deliveries planned to begin during 2027.

The continued sensitivity of the schedule is also evident from Emirates, the program’s largest customer. Airline President Tim Clark said in July that Emirates now expects to receive its first 777-9 in the second quarter of 2027, almost seven years after deliveries were originally scheduled to begin.

Lufthansa therefore finds itself in a somewhat unusual situation: its pilot training infrastructure is progressing faster than the aircraft program itself. When the simulator arrived, Lufthansa Aviation Training CEO Matthias Spohr noted that the new generation of aircraft had “symbolically landed” in Frankfurt well before the first real 777-9 would carry passengers from the airport.

The simulator’s early arrival nevertheless serves an important operational purpose. Introducing an entirely new aircraft type requires instructor and flight crew training as well as the development of internal procedures well before the first commercial flight. The simulator allows Lufthansa to begin this process independently of the final aircraft delivery schedule and ensure that a sufficient number of trained crews are available once the first aircraft arrive.

For Lufthansa Aviation Training, the simulator also represents a significant technological addition to one of Europe’s largest flight crew training systems. The company operates at ten locations, employs around 800 people and has almost 200 different training devices, ranging from full-flight simulators to cabin and procedural trainers.

The Boeing 777-9 is expected to become one of the key next-generation long-haul aircraft within the Lufthansa Group. However, while its cockpit can already be reproduced with a high degree of realism in Frankfurt, the real 777-9 will remain a future member of the fleet for some time yet.