Lufthansa confirmed as 777-9 launch customer as Boeing works toward first delivery next year

Boeing confirms German airline Lufthansa will be the launch customer for the in-certification 777-9, settling uncertainty about whether Emirates Airline might take the first of the type. The US aircraft manufacturer’s CFO Brian West on 28 January named Lufthansa as the launch customer. Boeing also says it is working through seat-certification challenges specific to Lufthansa’s jets and that it still anticipates delivering the first 777-9 in 2026. The seat-certification issues are separate from Boeing’s wider challenge of achieving the 777-9’s aircraft-level certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. In recent years, there had been uncertainty about whether Lufthansa or Dubai’s Emirates would be first to receive the massive Boeing twinjet. In 2017, Boeing had confirmed that Emirates had taken the title of 777-9 launch customer from Lufthansa, according to a FlightGlobal report. Boeing later claimed it had not named a launch operator. Lufthansa holds orders for 27 777Xs, including 777-9s and 777-8 Freighters, while Emirates has orders for 205 of those types, according to Boeing’s data.<br/>