Last MD-11 freighter bids farewell to Lufthansa fleet

by Payload Asia

An era of tri-jets within Lufthansa Group has come to an end as the cargo unit’s last MD-11F made its final approact at Frankfurt last 17 October.   Flight LH8161 from New York (JFK) landed at Frankfurt Airport for the last time  and touched down ahead of schedule at 12:03 p.m. local time on runway 07R.

This marks the end of commercial service of the three-engine MD-11F aircraft type with the German airline after more than 23 years. The aircraft with registration D-ALCC, also the last MD-11F registered in Europe, will now be sold to an American cargo airline.

“We know that this particular aircraft has an incredible number of fans, throughout our colleagues at Lufthansa as well as among aviation enthusiasts worldwide,” said Dorothea von Boxberg, chairman of the executive board and CEO of Lufthansa Cargo

“The decisive factor for the introduction of the MD-11F at Lufthansa Cargo in the late nineties was its significantly better fuel efficiency compared to the widebody freighter previously used. In the future, we will rely on the twin-engine Boeing 777F for the same reason.”

Also read: Lufthansa Cargo to bring in converted A321s next year

Lufthansa Cargo took delivery of its first two MD-11 freighters (former registrations D-ALCA and D-ALCB) in June 1998, followed by the third aircraft in August of the same year and given the registration D-ALCC. it operated nineteen MD-11, including the last ever manufactured (former registration D-ALCN, serial number 48806, delivered 25 January 2001) and the last ever delivered (former registration D-ALCM, serial number 48805, delivered 22 February 2001) aircraft of this type.

The MD-11 freighter is 61.4 meters long with a wingspan of 51.7 meters and a height of up to 18 meters. It has a cargo capacity of up to 94.7 tonnes, divided into 26 positions on the main deck and up to 14 more on the lower deck.

Lufthansa’s tri-jet freighters were powered by three General Electric CF6-80C2D1F jet engines, each with 273.57 kN standard thrust. The maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) was 285.99 metric tons, resulting in a range of 7,242 kilometers.

Since November 2013, Lufthansa Cargo has been gradually replacing the MD-11F freighters with twin-engine Boeing 777 freighters, which are much quieter and operate with lower emissions.