Lufthansa introducing 747-8 to Los Angeles and Chicago

After announcing the initial route for the 747-8 from Frankfurt to Washington Dulles, Lufthansa has announced the second and third destinations: Los Angeles and Chicago.

More information in today's USA Today:

http://travel.usatoday.com/flights/...new-747-8-to-los-angeles-and-chicago/673205/1

They'll keep the first few planes rotating EU-US, probably to have less operational issues at FRA...

(Reuters) - Boeing Co said on Wednesday it has delivered a 747-8 Intercontinental passenger plane to Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the first delivery of the airplane to an airline customer.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/boeing-delivers-1st-intercontinental-lufthansa-184540555.html

The next 2 -8i's will be delivered in july and august and will head to india to fly bangalore and delhi. #4 and #5 will be delivered in September and will serve ORD and LAX in Q4 (as of today anyway)

Does this mean that anything marketed to LAX after Q4 as a 744 could theoretically (or more than that even) be swapped for a 748?

Yes it is theoretically possible. you will see the 747-8i listed as 74H on Lufthansa's seating charts. Also if you see row 81+ on the upper deck, with tons of other seats, thats also a sign its the 747-8i. Business class is upstairs AND behind on the lower level. First is in the nose of the aircraft on the planes.

Nothing will be set in stone until the planes leave Boeing.

Do we know if the 748s are going to be dedicated to only these routes (IAD, LAX, ORD) year round or only for their initial launch? Or are they going to rotate the routes as they do currently with the A380s (ala SFO/MIA)?

All indications at this point are that the routes are dedicated, but that can always be amended.

Thanks. I ask because it seems that some of the flights farther into the future between FRA-IAD are currently marketed as 744s. I am guessing that just means they haven't updated the entire schedule yet.

That could be. Also, the 748 will have a day off on Tuesdays.

Ya I knew about the Tuesdays off thing, but I am looking at a different day of the week. Hopefully the system will gradually update itself.

Hi - Is there any update on when the 747-8 service to LAX may begin?

end of october. the plane was just delivered to LH last week.

Good news.

How about Chicago? When's the tentative timeline for it to see 747-8?

no definitive time set, its all up to boeing. Boeing gives LH 30 days notice for aircraft delivery. Then LH takes some time to get the plane ready for service.

still waiting for Boeing to say she's ready!

Really?

I have been using LX on a regular basis to get to ORD lately- and cannot really see any reason to change unless LH starts some deep price discounting (ha ha ha...).

Aren't there some thoughts now that the LAX and ORD 748 flights will be delayed until 2013?

ABYF was doing testing at KPAE late last week: http://kpae.blogspot.de/2012/09/paine-field-september-28.html

The 4th 748i (D-ABYF) arrived in FRA yesterday.
http://uk.flightaware.com/live/flight/DLH9875

Looks like LAX's 747-8i enters service on December 10

Can LAX be do-able with a single 747-8i? Or does it need two to offer daily service?

Two-ish. The LAX-FRA flight arrives 45 mins after FRA-LAX leaves. And it remains only 2 hrs 10 min on the ground in LAX.

Just changed my april FRA-LAX flight to the upper deck since it now shows as being 748i.