One of Lufthansa’s Airbus A380s is now the proud bearer for the first time of the name of Wien. The naming ceremony, attended by 250 invited guests, was held at Vienna Airport shortly after the mega-jetliner’s early-morning arrival in the Austrian capital.
Vienna Airport is the central hub of Austrian Airlines, which is based there as one of the Lufthansa Group Airlines. It plays an important role in the global route network of the Lufthansa Group.
“The naming of the most modern and biggest aircraft type in the Lufthansa fleet after the Austrian capital underlines the importance of Vienna in our operations,” said Stefan Lauer, Member of the Lufthansa executive board and supervisory board chairman of Austrian Airlines AG.
After opening remarks from Mr Stefan Lauer, the Vienna Mayor Michael Häupl poured sparkling wine over the giant plane before unveiling the name of Wien emblazoned in elegant lettering on the aircraft’s huge fuselage.
Following completion of the naming ceremony’s official and symbolic activities, the guests of honour boarded the doubledecker aircraft to enjoy a closer look at the cabin and its design.
Lufthansa’s new flagship later left on a scheduled flight from Frankfurt to Johannesburg to begin carrying its new name around the world.
The German airline is already operating eight Airbus A380s on long-haul services from Frankfurt to Asia (Tokyo, Peking), Africa (Johannesburg) and North America (New York, San Francisco, Miami). Two more of that type are scheduled to join the fleet next year.
The newly-named A380 Wien, registration D-AIMG, known internally as Mike Golf after the last two letters, has been in service since May and has meantime logged around 1,500 flying hours on about 330 flights in the Lufthansa timetable. The Wien attracted particular attention on May 7 when circling Hamburg in formation with the legendary old timer Ju52, operated by the Lufthansa Berlin Stiftung, to mark the 822nd anniversary of Hamburg harbour.
Together with the entire Lufthansa A380 fleet, the Wien is based at Frankfurt Airport, from where it flies on scheduled services.
Passengers from Austria fly into Frankfurt to board connecting flights to any of the A380 destinations. In the coming winter timetable, the Airbus 380 will also be flying daily to Singapore. (Source: Lufthansa)