Lufthansa is promising to debut new “top product” seats in every cabin from First Class down to Economy next year that will be “unparalleled in the market”. The announcement came as the German flag carrier unveiled an improved Business Class seat which came fitted on a second-hand Airbus A350 aircraft that the carrier acquired from Philipines Airlines.
The airline has been trailing a new Business Class seat since 2017 which was due to first appear on the Boeing 777X of which Lufthansa is expected to be one of the launch customers.
But with the first deliveries of Boeing’s next-generation 777X now officially pushed back to 2025, Lufthansa is left with an incredibly outdated Business Class seat in a 2-2-2 configuration and the airline’s seats in all other cabin classes are starting to show their age as well.
As a result, Lufthansa now plans to debut its new Business Class seat with direct all aisle access on its A350 aircraft in 2023. And in the meantime, the airline has taken delivery of second-hand A350’s from Philipines Airlines which also featured an enhanced Business Class seat.
“With a significantly improved Business Class on board, this aircraft also represents the beginning of one of the largest product modernizations in Lufthansa’s history,” commented chief executive Carsten Spohr on Friday.
Not that this seat is the one Lufthansa has been planning since 2017. In fact, the Business Class seat touted by Spohr on Friday will only feature on four A350s acquired from Philipines Airlines.
The new seat that Lufthansa has been planning for over five years is set to be revealed next year and will then be rolled out alongside a brand new First Class seat, Premium Economy and Economy Seat.
But times have certainly changed since Lufthansa first unveiled sneak peek mockups of its new Business Class seat and to stay competitive, the airline may also need to add privacy doors and other improvements.
We’ll have to wait another year, however, to find out what Lufthansa has planned.
