Lufthansa has issued a press release that the new Business Class cabin is now finally installed on all of their aircraft.
This finally puts an end to the roulette and anxiety over the infamous slides that were installed even of Lufthansa’s then new A380 aircraft.
Lufthansa mentions in their press release (access the german version here) that
The company has now completed the most extensive cabin refurbishment program in their history. Starting back in 2011 Lufthansa began to overhaul their First and Economy Class product which urgently needed a total exchange.
Until then, Lufthansa was flying their Boeing 747 with 16 passengers in First Class in a 2-2 configuration. While that was a solid product, the seat was antique and you always had someone sitting next to you (more often than not it was staff on personal travel). The Economy Class downstairs had no personal Inflight Entertainment System, only a monitor every few rows overhead. It was a complete disgrace.
The Business Class slides were installed around 2002and had a good 13 years of service. During this time the competition from other carriers grew. British Airways started out with a 180 degree flat bed which automatically rendered the Lufthansa product one generation behind. It came as a surprise that once Lufthansa received their new Airbus A380 aircraft, it still had the old Business Class and many passengers snubbed the carrier in the aftermath.
Now with the new Business Class thing are going to get much better. The press release outlines furthermore:
As of right now, 106 longhaul aircraft are equipped with the new Business Class and Economy Class product while on 76 aircraft the new First Class cabin has been installed. I did not find any information if Lufthansa has finally faded out their old First Class seat but a friend of mine still encountered it on one of his flights ex Brazil not too long ago.
Since 2011, Lufthansa has invested 1.5 Bln EUR into the modernization of the cabin and installed a total of 39,000 new seats consistent of 600 seats in First Class, 7.000 seats in Business Class and more than 27.600 seats in Economy Class. For the new Premium Economy Class, roughly 3.600 Sitze are in the process of being installed.
This shows that the new Lufthansa management finally takes product improvements serious.
Conclusion
I have now flown Lufthansa Business Class a few more times and I’m overall very happy with the product. I’m also under the impression that they improved a lot in cabin service and as far as the handling of their status customers is concerned.
After years of neglect, LH passengers finally have a reason to look forward to their flight again.
