Lufthansa spends $9bn on 80 planes from Boeing and Airbus

Shares in Boeing and Airbus were were flying higher on Tuesday after airline group Deutsche Lufthansa ordered 40 planes each from the manufacturers in a deal worth a combined $9bn.

The German carrier is purchasing 80 ultra-modern short and medium-haul aircraft, comprising 40 Boeing 737-8 MAX and 40 Airbus A220-300s, it said in a statement. This order won't impact capital expenditure plans in 2023 and 2024, with deliveries expected between 2026 and 2032.

The deal also includes purchasing options for a further 60 planes from Boeing and another 20 from Airbus, along with options for an additional 40 aircraft from the Airbus A320 family.

Airbus shares were up 0.4% at €139.72 by 1400 in Paris, while Boeing futures were up 0.8% at $262.50 ahead of the opening bell in New York. Deutsche Lufthansa was up 0.8% at €8.03 in Frankfurt.

"With today's aircraft order, we are accelerating the largest fleet modernisation in our company's history," said Detlef Kayser, a member of Lufthansa's executive board on fleet and technology.

"This increases our order list of around 200 aircraft to 280 – plus an additional 120 purchasing options for further state-of-the-art short- and medium-haul aircraft."

Lufthansa now has more than 700 commercial aircraft across its fleet, and it continuing to invest heavily in cost efficiency and reducing its environmental impact. Its current target is to halve net carbon emissions from 2019 to 2030, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

"Compared to their predecessor models, the new additions to the Lufthansa Group fleet have up to 30% lower fuel consumption and correspondingly lower carbon emissions," the company said.