- Ceremony last Friday, transfer flight from Hamburg to Cologne-Bonn
today

Following the ceremonial handover of the first aircraft in June at
ILA Berlin, Lufthansa Technik AG today also delivered the second
Airbus A321LR (Long Range) to the German Air Force with a transfer
flight from Hamburg to Cologne-Bonn. Like its sister aircraft already
in service with the tactical registration 15+10, the new 15+11 will
now also be available to the German Air Force for troop transport and
parliamentary flight operations on short-, medium- and long-haul
routes. The respective capacity of each of the two aircraft in this
configuration is 136 passengers.

During a small ceremony at Lufthansa Technik's base in Hamburg, all
involved personnel had already officially bid farewell to the
aircraft last Friday. Not only Lufthansa Technik's project team was
invited to attend, but also, among others, the personnel involved
from the German Federal Office of Bundeswehr Equipment, Information
Technology and In-Service Support (BAAINBw), the Bundeswehr Technical
Center for Aircraft and Aeronautical Equipment (WTD 61) and the
German Air Force, which had previously subjected the 15+11 to an
intensive testing and acceptance program. With its completion, the
first phase of the modification project is now finished.

In the coming year, however, both A321LRs will return to Lufthansa
Technik to be modified and certified for MedEvac (Medical Evacuation)
duties in the second phase of the project. This will expand the
aircraft's range of operations to include capabilities for the
qualified air transport of wounded, injured and diseased passengers.
In this context, three different configurations will be available to
transport up to six intensive care patients or up to twelve mildly or
moderately ill/injured patients. To this end, Lufthansa Technik will
deliver a total of twelve units and two reserve units of the Patient
Transport Unit New Generation (German: Patiententransporteinheit
Neuer Generation, short: PTE NG) to the German armed forces. The
company was able to complete various preliminary work for the MedEvac
mission, for example for the oxygen supply on board the two aircraft,
already during the first phase of the project.