THE new Queen of the Skies has arrived in Frankfurt. Today Lufthansa became the first airline in the world to take delivery of a Boeing 747-8. After the handover at Boeing's manufacturing facility in Everett, Washington, the new jumbo with the registration D-ABYA performed a touch and go at Hamburg Airport, where Lufthansa Technik is based, before flying on to its future home base in Frankfurt, where it landed safely. On June 1, the world's first passenger flight with a Boeing 747-8 aircraft will depart from Frankfurt as flight LH 418 bound for Washington Dulles International Airport in Washington DC. "We are looking forward to welcoming the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental to our long-haul fleet. In future we will offer our passengers on board this completely newly developed long-haul aircraft an exclusive travel experience and the comfort of our new Business Class. The Boeing 747-8 is characterized by lower noise emissions, lower fuel consumption and significantly reduced CO2 emissions. That enables us to combine maximum comfort with sustainability," Lufthansa Executive Board member Carsten Spohr said at the large reception held at Frankfurt Airport. The Boeing 747-8 is a completely new aircraft that builds upon the positive features of the Boeing 747 series, which has been Lufthansa's long-haul workhorse for the past 40 years. The aircraft boasts significantly improved aerodynamics and newly developed wingtips, and also provides tangible improvements in terms of eco-efficiency. The Gent GEnx-2B engines use less fuel and achieve a substantial 15 percent reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions per passenger.
