This continuous modernisation and expansion of the fleet in line with planned future requirements safeguards and enhances our future competitiveness. Our fleet and order policy also allows us to respond as well as possible to the fluctuations in demand that characterise our industry. The majority of the fleet is owned by the Group companies and moreover is financially unencumbered; the proportion of aircraft leased externally is kept low. This permits the Group to draw rapidly on available aircraft at times of strong demand. When demand falls, we can reduce costs by scaling back capacities accordingly. For this reason we arrange for aircraft orders to be delivered in phases. According to demand, we can then decide whether to continue using existing aircraft or to replace them with new ones.

Whereas all deliveries in 2009 served to replace aircraft already in use, new deliveries in the reporting year were again destined for growth. This and expected traffic volumes are the yardstick for the number and size of aircraft ordered. Across the Group long-haul, medium-haul and short-haul planes are ordered depending on where they are to be employed, so that we can deploy the right aircraft for each route served. As the configuration of the aircraft is largely harmonised, this gives us the greatest possible flexibility to deploy them within the airline group.

This creates the necessary flexibility for coordinating capacity with demand in the individual target markets.

As well as ordering new aircraft, we also follow technical developments closely and modify the existing aircraft continuously. This means that the constant renewal of the fleet in terms of fuel consumption, noise emissions and reliability not only takes place via new orders, but is also rolled out consistently to the existing fleet. Lufthansa’s Boeing 737 fleet is being refitted for instance, and adapted to meet current technical standards, see chapter Cutting-edge research projects.

In May 2010 we took delivery of our first Airbus A380-800, the new flagship of our fleet. By the end of the year four A380s had been put into service on routes to Asia and South Africa with high passenger numbers. This ultra-modern aircraft offers favourable unit costs as well as clear benefits for the environment and supports us in our efforts to reduce the specific fuel consumption of the entire fleet sustainably.

The four A380s are just some of a total of 47 new aircraft delivered to the Lufthansa Group in the reporting year. These were mostly short- and medium-haul planes. For 2011 we are currently anticipating delivery of a further 34 aircraft, of which around half will be from the Airbus A320 family.

The Supervisory Board approved orders for a total of 56 new aircraft in 2010: eight wide-bodied Airbus A330s as well as 32 planes from the A320 family and 16 regional aircraft. This takes total orders though to the year 2016 to 155 aircraft, including 20 Boeing 747-8 Intercontinentals, as another ultra-modern wide-bodied jet.