Lufthansa Group's leisure arm is about to get a serious fleet upgrade. Discover Airlines, the group's long-haul holiday carrier based in Germany, will take on 13 Airbus A350-900s in two waves: four second-hand jets from Lufthansa arriving in 2027 and 2028, then nine brand-new aircraft from 2029 onwards as part of a wider group order.

Here's the interesting part. The four ex-Lufthansa A350s aren't ordinary hand-me-downs. They're the planes Lufthansa picked up from Philippine Airlines back in 2021, complete with Thompson Aero Vantage XL business class seats — a distinctly better product than the old 2-2-2 layout found across most of Lufthansa's own fleet. The plan is to keep those cabins intact when the jets move across, which quietly gives Discover Airlines one of the more comfortable business class products in the group.

The rollout starts in June 2027, when the first A350 joins the fleet. After some short-haul crew familiarisation flying, it will go long-haul from Frankfurt to Calgary and Orlando. The second arrives in December 2027 and adds San Jose, Costa Rica and Belize City to its map, with the third and fourth following in summer 2028. By mid-2028 the long-haul fleet should reach 20 aircraft, boosted by some former Lufthansa A330s on top of the A350s. The nine factory-fresh jets from 2029 will eventually replace the airline's ageing all-A330 fleet of 13 aircraft.

For travellers, this matters because Discover is where Lufthansa Group is actually investing. The flagship brand has struggled with profitability, and the group is increasingly handing routes to its leisure subsidiaries — Discover is even taking over Lufthansa's Seattle flying. Sister leisure carrier Edelweiss, part of SWISS, is going through the same A350 refresh, swapping its A340s for former LATAM jets with new cabins.

Details on the nine new-build A350s' interiors are still under wraps. They could get Lufthansa's Allegris or SWISS Senses business class, or the off-the-shelf product Discover is installing on its existing A330s. Either way, if you're booking a leisure long-haul with Lufthansa Group from 2027, the cheap-and-cheerful option may no longer feel so cheap on board.