• Ceremony last Friday, transfer flight from Hamburg to Cologne-Bonn today

Following the ceremonial handover of the first aircraft in June at ILA Berlin, Lufthansa Technik AG today also delivered the second Airbus A321LR (Long Range) to the German Air Force with a transfer flight from Hamburg to Cologne-Bonn. Like its sister aircraft already in service with the tactical registration 15+10, the new 15+11 will now also be available to the German Air Force for troop transport and parliamentary flight operations on short-, medium- and long-haul routes. The respective capacity of each of the two aircraft in this configuration is 136 passengers.

During a small ceremony at Lufthansa Technik's base in Hamburg, all involved personnel had already officially bid farewell to the aircraft last Friday. Not only Lufthansa Technik's project team was invited to attend, but also, among others, the personnel involved from the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw), the Bundeswehr Technical Center for Aircraft and Aeronautical Equipment (WTD 61) and the German Air Force, which had previously subjected the 15+11 to an intensive testing and acceptance program. With its completion, the first phase of the modification project is now finished.

In the coming year, however, both A321LRs will return to Lufthansa Technik to be modified and certified for MedEvac (Medical Evacuation) duties in the second phase of the project. This will expand the aircraft's range of operations to include capabilities for the qualified air transport of wounded, injured and diseased passengers. In this context, three different configurations will be available to transport up to six intensive care patients or up to twelve mildly or moderately ill/injured patients. To this end, Lufthansa Technik will deliver a total of twelve units and two reserve units of the Patient Transport Unit New Generation (German: Patiententransporteinheit Neuer Generation, short: PTE NG) to the German armed forces. The company was able to complete various preliminary work for the MedEvac mission, for example for the oxygen supply on board the two aircraft, already during the first phase of the project.