Announced in 2017 and repeatedly postponed, Lufthansa’s new long-haul business class cabin, scheduled for launch in late 2023, will not be launched until at least early 2024.
Lufthansa business class: a cabin that’s way out of its league
You may have noticed that we’ve only written about one long-haul business class flight on Lufthansa. Not because we didn’t feel like writing about it, but because it’s a product we’ve only really tested once, and given our level of disappointment we decided to forget about it and move on to something else.
We’re not talking about the service, which is generally very good, but about the hard product, the seat itself. 2-2-2 configuration, absolutely no privacy, you’re just about toe-to-toe with your seatmate… Certainly the worst product in this category for a major and even beyond.
Lufthansa has been promising a new cabin for 6 years…but nothing has changed
Aware of the problem, Lufthansa announced a new cabin in 2017, with photos to back it up, sparking real interest from industry observers.
And since then? Nothing! Anyone who has laughed at Air France and its totally out-of-touch NEV 4 seat, then its Best & Beyond cabin that took forever to deploy, and more generally at the time it took for the airline to equip its entire long-haul fleet with seats worthy of the name, must admit that in this respect Lufthansa breaks all records.
At most, it inherited of seats a little more in line with its ambitions, by recovering four aircraft that should have gone to Philippine Airlines had it not gone bankrupt! These aircraft are equipped with the cabin chosen by the Asian airline.
In the meantime, it seems that this simple announcement helped Lufthansa earn its 5th Skytrax star at the time, much to the chagrin of its competitors. A star recently lost…too much is too much.
A new product finally confirmed but still postponed
Everything eventually comes to those who wait, and Lufthansa’s new First, Business and Economy cabins have been confirmed, with photos, late 2022, with a launch scheduled for summer 2023 for this new product named Allegris. An innovative product that is not without raising some concerns. Then it was the end of 2023.
Most recently, the date of “early 2024” has been announced. The first aircraft to receive the new cabin will be a B787-9.
Seat problem or aircraft problem?
This is where the German company’s communication needs to be carefully deciphered.
First of all, the company announced a production problem that would delay the launch of the first-class cabin, supplied by Collins Aerospace, although it is not known whether this will force it to launch A350s without the first-class suite at first.
But the B787-9 is not to be fitted with first class equipment, so a priori it should not be concerned! In this particular case, it would be Boeing that is experiencing production problems with its Dreamliners.
Lufthansa has been let down by seat manufacturers on the one hand, and aircraft manufacturers on the other, and is now facing further delays in the delivery of aircraft finally equipped with new cabins.
But you have to admit that, in the long run, it doesn’t look very serious.
Bottom line
Between the production problems of its seat supplier and those of Boeing, Lufthansa has postponed indefinitely the launch of its new first-class suite, and to early 2024 the launch of the first aircraft equipped with its new cabin in general.
And what do you think of these multiple delays? And what do you think of Lufthansa’s current product? Tell us in the comments.