Lufthansa A380 carries name of Zurich around the world

Zurich Council President Gut-Winterberger performs the honours at Zurich hub

Lufthansa named an Airbus A380 after Zurich on Tuesday (13 September). The naming ceremony took place at Zurich Airport shortly after the mega-liner touched down after a special morning flight from Frankfurt. Zurich Airport is the home base and central hub of SWISS, which is based there as one of the Lufthansa Group Airlines. It accordingly plays a key role in the global route network of the Lufthansa Group. “Today’s naming of the Lufthansa flagship in Zurich is a token of the esteem, in which one of the most important neighbours and partners of Germany and our Company is held. In Switzerland, Lufthansa has in harness with SWISS written a success story here at ’our’ Zurich hub,” observed Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Dr. Christoph Franz at the naming ceremony.

As ceremonial host, Dr. Christoph Franz cordially welcomed Zurich Council President
Dr. Ursula Gut-Winterberger, who performed the naming ceremony at the Airport. She then poured sparkling wine over the giant plane before unveiling the name of Zurich sprayed on the fuselage, Afterwards, the naming certificate was signed and the guests of honour were invited on board the double-decker aircraft to tour the sleek and impressively designed cabin. On Tuesday afternoon, it was back to business as the A380 took off on a scheduled flight from Frankfurt to Peking, carrying the name of Zurich around the world in the Lufthansa global network.

The German airline is already operating eight Airbus A380s on long-haul services from Frankfurt to Asia (Tokyo, Peking), Africa (Johannesburg) and North America (New York, San Francisco, Miami). Two more of that type are scheduled to join the fleet next year. The newly named A380 “Zurich”, registration D-AIMF (known internally as “Mike Fox“ after the last two letters), was the sixth of the type to be delivered for the Lufthansa fleet on 4 April 2011. It has since logged around 2,200 flying hours on about 240 flights. The “Zurich” is based along with the entire Lufthansa A380 fleet at Frankfurt Airport, from where it flies scheduled services to all the aforementioned destinations. Passengers from Switzerland fly to Frankfurt to board A380 connecting flights to all the flagship’s destinations. In the coming winter timetable, the A380 will also be flying daily to Singapore. The Lufthansa flagship seats 526 passengers in the best and most modern service classes in the Lufthansa fleet. First Class, with eight generously proportioned seats on the upper deck, is entirely new and individualistic. The world’s biggest Business Class with 98 seats on the upper deck and Economy Class with 420 seats on the main deck offer unprecedented comfort in a remarkably spacious cabin interior.

Updates and background information about the world’s biggest passenger aircraft are available on the lufthansa.com/A380 website.