Germany's Lufthansa will put its first Airbus A350-1000 into passenger service on December 3, 2026, flying from Munich to Tokyo’s Haneda airport, the Lufthansa Group said in a press release on October 15.

The aircraft will fly from the Airbus facilities in Toulouse to Munich in mid-November. Lufthansa will make final preparations before the first flight with passengers.

Shanghai and Singapore will be added to the A350-1000’s destinations in the weeks after the Tokyo launch, the group said. All these flights will have the airline’s Allegris cabin. They will be flown by the A350-1000 and the A350-900 alternately.

Heiko Reitz, a member of the Lufthansa Airlines Board and Hub Manager Munich, said the introduction of the new aircraft is part of the largest fleet modernisation in the Lufthansa Group’s history. He said the A350-1000 “strengthens our premium hub in Munich”, and added that it carries 40 per cent more Business and Premium Economy seats. The release did not say what that figure is measured against.

The first aircraft, registered D-AIFA, is named “Deutschland”. Lufthansa said it is the 700th aircraft Airbus has delivered to the Lufthansa Group and the seventh in its anniversary fleet, which carries a special livery for the company’s 100th anniversary.

The Lufthansa Group has ordered 15 A350-1000s, to be delivered by 2030. The first ten will fly for Lufthansa and be based at its Munich hub.

At 73.80 metres, the aircraft is seven metres longer than the A350-900. Lufthansa said it seats 300 passengers in four classes: three to four seats in First Class, 49 in Business Class (including eight in suites), 35 in Premium Economy and 212 in Economy.

The aircraft is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines. The group said it is made of more than 50 per cent composite materials, along with titanium and modern aluminium alloys. It said these technologies cut fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by 25 per cent compared with previous-generation aircraft. It added that the aircraft is certified well below the latest ICAO Chapter 14 noise standards.