Lufthansa’s new A350s will initially be allocated to its Munich hub.

The first aircraft, as we reported last month, is expected to arrive on December 19. In total the first ten A350-900s will be based at Munich.

But Munich acts as second hub to Frankfurt (the home of Lufthansa’s flagship A380s) so with business travel not being quite so strong it comes as no surprise to learn that Lufthansa intends to reduce first class availability at the Bavarian airport.

The A350’s first flight will be to Delhi on February 10 with Germany’s aero.de reporting that the second A350 will enter service with Lufthansa in February, with the third arriving in March.

All three A350s along with the remainder of the others allocated to Munich will have no first class seating.

Lufthansa will configure these ten aircraft with three classes: business (48 seats), premium economy (21 seats) and economy (224 seats).

Some of the carrier’s four-engined A340-600s will be replaced by the more fuel-efficient twin-engined A350s.

What it means is that the number of aircraft offering the first class product on long-haul routes from Munich will fall from a figure of 70 per cent in summer 2016 to 60 per cent in 2017.

Does Lufthansa intend to completely phase out first class out of Munich in years to come? At present it will make no comment.

For information on Lufthansa’s various lounge facilities at Munich’s Terminal 2 Munich see our report here.

lufthansa.com