Lufthansa ended scheduled passenger operations of the Boeing 737 on 29 October, some 48 years after it gave the short-haul twinjet its world debut.
The German carrier, which launched the 737 in its original -100 form in February 1965 with an order for 21 aircraft, introduced the twinjet in February 1968. The airline’s final 737 services were flown as the 2016 summer schedule drew to a close.
Lufthansa‘s very last 737 revenue sector, flown by 737-300 D-ABEF, touched down at 19:53 on 29 October at Frankfurt, with 131 passengers on board, after a flight from Nuremberg. Lufthansa chief executive Carsten Spohr was on hand to greet the final arrival. Shortly before this, three other 737-300s arrived from Stuttgart, Geneva and Leipzig/Halle. A final Lufthansa 737 farewell flight is being operated today (31 October) to Frankfurt from Hamburg.
When Boeing decided to put the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-powered 737 into production on 19 February 1965 following the order from Lufthansa, it was the first time that a US manufacturer had launched a new airliner on the strength of an export order. However, United Airlines quickly followed Lufthansa, but ordered the slightly larger 737-200 variant. This version entered service with the US airline in April 1968.
The original 737-100 variant launched by Lufthansa proved relatively unpopular, with just 30 being built. After receiving is first -100 in December 1967, Lufthansa became a major operator of the later 737 variants, operating the -200 as well as the CFM International CFM56-powered -300, -400 and –500 versions.
In the latter part of the last century, the type become the backbone of its short-haul fleet. Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that Lufthansa’s fleet peaked in 1992-93 when it operated 110 737s. The twinjet was also operated by Lufthansa’s leisure airline arm Condor and continues to be flown by the airline’s Antalya-based joint venture with Turkish Airlines, SunExpress.
