An anniversary with a billion-euro order
Lufthansa and Airbus celebrate fifty years of partnership at ILA 2026 and turn it into one of the biggest agreements of the show.
Deals · ILA Berlin 2026 Photo: Messe Berlin / Johannes Zappe 50 years, 10 new A350s
To mark the anniversary of their partnership, Lufthansa Group and Airbus sign a strategic agreement at ILA, joined by a firm order for ten more A350-900s.
Some anniversaries are celebrated with a cake, others with a fleet decision. At ILA Berlin 2026, Lufthansa and Airbus chose the latter: fifty years after their partnership began, the two companies signed a strategic agreement at the show and ordered ten more A350-900s, a package worth around 3.5 billion euros at list prices, or roughly 350 million euros per aircraft.
The agreement goes beyond the order itself: the package includes a component services contract for the Lufthansa Group's A220 fleet, combining fleet growth and a long-term maintenance partnership in a single signing.
An anniversary you could touch
The partnership was visible on the apron too: the static display featured an A320neo in the special "100 Years of Lufthansa" livery, its deep blue nose becoming one of the most photographed motifs of the show. Together with the Beluga, the Emirates A380 and the Do228 NXT it formed the civil showcase of ILA 2026.
For exhibitors, the signing shows what ILA delivers as a platform: decisions that take months to prepare get their stage in Berlin, with board-level attendance, an audience and international press.