Lufthansa’s Disastrous Rollout Of New Business Class Cabin Hits Another Snag After The FAA Refuses to Certify Seats

Lufthansa’s disastrous rollout of its new Business Class cabin has hit another major snag because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently refusing to certify the seats on more than a dozen brand new Boeing 787 Dreamliners that are currently sitting idle.

The German flag carrier first announced plans to introduce new Business and First Class seats back in 2017, but the project, dubbed ‘Allegris,’ has been beset by a series of embarrassing and costly issues.

Plans to introduce the new seats were repeatedly pushed back, and it wasn’t until May that Lufthansa finally got the new Allegris Business Class cabin into commercial service for its first Airbus A350-1000.

Even then, however, Lufthansa was still working on technical issues with its new First Class seats, so the airline started flying its Airbus A350s with an empty space at the front of the plane where First Class was meant to be installed.

Thankfully, Lufthansa has now ironed out the issues with the First Class seats, and this cabin is finally being fitted, but embattled chief executive Carsten Spohr has now revealed that there is another problem with Allegris, and it could be the biggest challenge to date.

Lufthansa has 34 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on order, which are destined to replace the airline’s aging and gas-hungry Airbus A340s, and deliveries were expected to start anytime soon.

In fact, Boeing has already completed work on 13 Dreamliners, and two more are expected to be ready very soon. Six of the completed Dreamliners even have the Allegris Business Class cabin installed, but there’s currently a lengthy hold-up, which means that Lufthansa can’t take delivery of the jets.

According to German media sources, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is currently refusing to certify the new seats due to issues with crash tests – an essential requirement that must be met before a new seat can be approved.

Although the Allegris seats on Lufthansa’s Airbus A350 fleet have been tested and approved by Europe’s aviation regulator, the FAA is responsible for testing the seats on Lufthansa’s Boeing 787 fleet as it is an American manufacturer.

Interestingly, although the seats are essentially the same, the seats on the Airbus A350 are produced by Thompson Aero, while the 787 seats are made by Collins Aerospace.

Sophr admitted that the certification is so serious that Lufthansa doesn’t now expect to receive its first Boeing 787 Dreamliner until mid-2025 at the earliest. Sophr did not, however, provide further detail on what was causing the holdup.

There is, however, speculation that the seats have already undergone crash testing and failed. That raises the possibility that major changes will need to be made to the design before the FAA is willing to certify the seats.

For context, Lufthansa opted not to install ‘off the shelf’ Business Class seats that are used by other airlines but instead created a custom-designed product with a confusing layout and various options throughout the cabin.

Unless Lufthansa can quickly develop a fix to address the FAA’s concerns, the airline is reportedly considering taking delivery of the planes even without the Allegris seats certified and simply flying them with just the Economy and Premium Economy cabins occupied.

In any case, it’s understood that Lufthansa will be seeking compensation from Collins Aerospace, although whether that would cover the losses that the airline is racking up over the debacle remains to be seen.

Unsurprisingly, this ongoing fiasco calls Spohr’s leadership into question, with increasing calls for the board to replace him. Spohr is already an unpopular leader within the airline for his focus on setting up multiple subsidiary companies to cut costs by hiring cheaper staff.