Lufthansa New 747-8 Intercontinental

Deutsche Lufthansa AG (DLAKY, LHA.XE), launch customer for the new Boeing Co. (BA) 747-8 Intercontinental, said Thursday that Washington Dulles International Airport would be the first scheduled destination for the revamped jumbo jet.

Lufthansa Chief Executive Christoph Franz announced the move during a speech in the U.S. capital, and it comes weeks before the expected arrival of the first commercial passenger version of the new jet after years of delays caused by design and production issues.

Lufthansa has 20 of the new jumbos on order--the airline is by far the jet's biggest customer--each equipped with 386 seats, compared with the 340 fitted on the Boeing 747-400s currently used on the Washington route from its Frankfurt hub.

The airline flew its first Airbus A380 between Frankfurt and New York, and the choice of Washington for the 747-8i also carries symbolic value for Lufthansa.

Washington will, by next year, be the first and only U.S. city served by all of the big three Gulf carriers--Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways--whose expansion has been sharply criticized by Lufthansa.

Franz took another swing at the trio Thursday, describing the "gigantic state-financed growth" of airlines in the Middle East, though didn't identify any specific carrier.