Lufthansa Cargo has parked two of its four A321 freighters after a single fine crack was located on the rear fuselage structure of one of the aircraft.
The two affected aircraft are D-AEUC and D-AEUI. The former has not flown for several days now while the latter last conducted a flight on December 9, according to FlightRadar 24.
A Lufthansa Cargo spokesperson said that initially all four aircraft were taken out of service for checks but two (D-AEUA and D-AEUJ) returned to service on Wednesday (January 10).
“During a routine check on January 9 a single fine crack was detected on the rear fuselage structure of an A321P2F (D-AEUC) that is in service with Lufthansa Cargo,” the spokesperson said.
“As a precautionary measure, all three other converted A321 freighters in the cargo fleet were withdrawn from service and checked for cracks.”
They added that the passenger version of the Airbus A320 family is not affected, only aircraft modified for the cargo operation.
The carrier is not expecting the situation to result in long-term delays.
“Of the two A321P2Fs, the freighter with registration D-AEUC was not scheduled anyway due to a routine check with corresponding idle times,” the spokesperson added.
“Both aircraft will be repaired as soon as possible. As things stand at the moment, there will only be minimal short-term cancellations of individual frequencies in the cargo flight schedule.”
According to Planespotters.net, D-AEUC is just over 15 years old and carried out its first flight for Lufthansa Cargo in March 2022.
D-AEUI took to the skies on behalf of the carrier in June 2023 and is 11 years old.
Both aircraft were converted by Elbe Flugzeugwerke (EFW).
EFW said that a repair solution is in progress. At the moment, technical data is being evaluated so it is too early to draw any conclusions at this time, the company said.
The aircraft are part of Lufthansa Cargo’s intra-European network which was launched in 2022 with the delivery of the first of the freighters.
The carrier launched the network as it looked to cater for growing e-commerce demand.
The aircraft are operated by LufthansaCity Line on behalf of the cargo business.
Lufthansa Cargo launches intra-European freighter flights
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