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Lufthansa will unveil premium economy in March 2014

11 Apr 2013 by Tom Otley

Lufthansa has revealed further details about the timing of the premium economy seating it is introducing next year.

As detailed in online news in March 2013, after a long internal debate, Lufthansa has decided to introduce the new seating, aiming for a relatively quick roll-out. Now, speaking in Hong Kong to introduce the B747-8 aircraft which has just debuted on the Frankfurt to Hong Kong route, Lufthansa’s Vice President, Sales & Services Europe, Gotz Ahmelmann revealed that the seat will be probably unveiled at the ITB trade fair in March of 2014. The retrofit of the new cabin on all existing intercontinental aircraft will then begin from the end of the second quarter of 2014.

Ahmelmann said that the seat will be much quicker to fit to existing aircraft than the current business class upgrade, on which Lufthansa is spending “one million Euros per day”, and will not take "two or three weeks of the aircraft on the ground to fit", but which could be installed on a much swifter time frame. He also added that premium economy is only planned for “Lufthansa Classic”, in other words not for the Swiss or Austrian Airlines long haul fleet.

Although Ahmelmann would not be drawn on the exact details of the seat, he did say that Lufthansa is “...not just increasing leg room, it will be more than that. It will be seats with more amenities.

Ahmelmann said that Lufthansa had considered the possibility of “dilution” of business class by the introduction of premium economy (ie: passengers downgrading from business to premium economy), but considered the new seat necessary.

We see companies saving money on booking trips, stricter travel policies for their staff, and it is quite honestly one of the reasons for bringing in premium economy, to give travellers a possibility within economy to find a more appealing product.

Lufthansa said it was too early to reveal pricing, but “...it would be closer to economy pricing than business”.

Ahmelmann was keen to emphasise that the introduction of premium economy did not mean that first class would be removed from any aircraft, and said that some 70 per cent of the long haul fleet had first class, and that percentage would remain. Where premium economy was added it would make Lufthansa a four-class carrier, and on those currently offering economy and business class it would make them a three-class carrier.

Tom Otley

 

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