Lufthansa's B777-9s have been delayed again, forcing Germany's largest airline to keep flying older A340-300s until summer 2027 as a contingency plan, impacting its fleet modernisation and capital expenditure.

Speaking during the company's recent third-quarter earnings call, Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr confirmed that Boeing had officially pushed the first B777-9 delivery beyond the first quarter of 2027. The airline now expects a "low single-digit number of deliveries" of the type in the second quarter of 2027, he said.

As a result, Spohr said, the group has removed the B777-9 from its summer 2027 schedule and will retain additional A340-300s to cover long-haul flying. Spohr described the move as "Plan B" in response to Boeing's latest delay. "Once the aircraft arrives, it will, of course, replace the A340-300," he added.

For 2028, B787 deliveries intended for Austrian Airlines (OS, Vienna) may be reallocated to Frankfurt International to maintain long-haul schedules, he said. "There will of course also be an impact on CapEx, but that is too early now to define in more detail."

The delay extends a programme that has fallen far behind its original timetable. Boeing said in its 2013 launch announcement that production would begin in 2017 and first delivery was targeted for 2020.

Reporting on its own third-quarter results, Boeing said the B777-9 was on track for first delivery in 2027, while reporting USD86 million in reach-forward losses on the B777X and B767 programmes during the first nine months of 2026.

Certification remains the central obstacle. Boeing has continued certification flight testing, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will not certify the B777-9 until it approves a redesigned mid-seal for the aircraft's GE Aerospace GE9X turbofan engines, an agency official told FlightGlobal. GE Aerospace is reportedly seeking approval of the redesigned mid-seal by the end of 2026, while Boeing continues to target the first B777-9 delivery in 2027. The seal does not need to be installed on the engines used during the aircraft's Extended-range Twin-engine Operational Performance Standards (ETOPS) certification testing.

Lufthansa is a launch customer for the B777-9 and has 21 of the aircraft on order, according to ch-aviation data. The aircraft are to replace the airline's ageing four-engine A340-300s, of which 11 currently remain in the fleet.