It was a historic year 2017...
Against the "official history" the Boeing 737 was a development AFTER a request from Lufthansa for an aircraft in the range of the BAC-1-11 and the DC-9 with more space, easy to operate and efficient. And so the Lufthansa was the launch customer vor the small -100-Version. Operating the -200, -300 -400 and -500-Series, Lufthansa was a big customer of this aircraft and they where the backbone of the fleet to the 80th´s over Europa and to North Africa. Longer distances were flown by the Boeing 727´s.
But in the eighty´s thing´s changing. The Airbus A319/320/321 left the Boeing 737 obsolescent and the "more modern variants" are in reality the same mechanical without fly-by-wire-aircraft. That is not everywhere a problem. In Russia, in Sibir and the Far East of Russia for example the Airbus have limitations below -35° C... the Boeing 737 not.
In Oktober 2016 the last remaining Boeing 737-300/500 with Lufthansa gone after nearly 50 years from Boeing 737 in service in the fleet...
https://www.austrianwings.info/2017/01/ ... verlassen/11. January 2017, the very last 737-300 in Germany was flown in to the USA for scrapping. The last bigger Carrier in the EU with Boeing 737-300/500 is Air Baltic, but they are also in the process to replace them with Bombardier CS300.