[Rferguson2]

Lufthansa announced finally announced the replacement to their woefully outdated Business Class in 2017. And how many aircraft now have the new seat? ZERO! Not one single plane.

And the delays due to ‘challenges’ continue and are verging on ridiculousness.

Lufthansa has 19 747’8i aircraft with no plans to retire them. What they didn’t realise apparently until now is that the seats will add too much weight to the front of the aircraft given the double decker nature.

Their plan? German website aeroTELEGRAPH reports they will reconfigure the lower deck only with Allegris retaining the old product on the upper deck. Eventually they will fit a weight of 700kg in the rear of the aircraft allowing them to add the Allegris product on the upper deck of the jumbo.

What an absolute shambles.

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Swissdiver, maxgeorge, MarkCymru, AndrewinHK, sparkyflier

[Senator]

My take on Lufthansa is as a conservative follower. They take little risk. The current product was essentially two generation too late when it deployed and it took forever for it to get across the fleet.

Have they lost the plot? I think partially. What Lufthansa is probably experiencing is the same as the rest of the lot. Unpredictable planning of the fleet due to issues at both Airbus but mostly Boeing.

Allegris was supposed to launch with the next generation B77X. Now, this is aircraft is far behind schedule. Then all those B787s that were parked in Charleston is another headache.

To my recollection, the original plan was to retire the A340-300/-600s, A380s, B747-8i sub-fleets by the end of the decade and replace with a mix of A350s plus B787s/B77Xs. However, given the precarious situation at both Boeing and Airbus those plans are up in the air (pun intended).

Hence, the issue arises due to unintended consequences. The idea was never to certify Allegris on the B747-8i sub-fleet. Now, they need to run longer due to a mix of higher demand and lack of aircrafts.

[LetsFlyNow]

I’d answer the question with YES. And i’m increasingly doubtful that Allegris will see the light of day in the current form.
Now, i’m based in Munich and fly LH alot. Senator for many years.

When Allegris was announced back in 2017 for launch in 2019 we didn’t have supply issues that we can blame on Covid. With the B779 postponed surely the seat could have launched on the A350s that LH kept receiving.

None of the engineers and bosses at LH thought about the dimensions of planes in the LH fleet? Some of the B747-8 were rather factory fresh in 2017 when this product was announced and i doubt LH was planning on keeping them for just a few years.

LH still doesn’t have enough seats to fill a single full plane!

I was lucky to try the seats earlier this summer during the Allegris-Tour and apart from the throne seats this is the United Polaris seat with some tech upgrades. UA launched this seat in 2016.

I think LH will end up introducing a new business and First class seat. There were a bunch of ‘clunky’ features like the table that we were promised would get a redo. If allowed i could post the pics here.
PE will stay as it is already flying on Swiss.

[MrDarwin]

They could get ahead of the game and announce the Allegris replacement now whilst they’re at it. Haphazard decision making and a real lack of strategy around product is making for a comical reality – two totally different business class seats on the same plane. In other countries heads would have rolled long ago for such poor management.

[Maaki]

This (Allegris) is the same chaos like many years ago with now totally outdated BC of LH.
I don´t understand, why they have chosen such a cramped BC many years (decades?) ago and also why other carriers of the same group (SWISS and Austrian) have a much better BC at present. Fortunately, I can fly 99% of long distance flights from ZRH. My home airport is MUC and so I don´t care about 2-3 hrs longer international travel to East or West, but in a real BC of SWISS (3A is a very nice seat ;-).
I am sure, that LH will install Allegris any time in the future, but I´m very confident, that this will take about 8-10 years from today, until all planes will be fitted with the (then againd old) BC.

[Rferguson2]

Lufthansa announced at its investor day on Thursday that Allegris has now been further delayed. The first aircraft will not be seen with the new seats until Summer 2024 at the earliest.

[LetsFlyNow]

Summer 2024 sounds more like early 2025. This is beyond embarassing.

[Maaki]

… or 2026 maybe :-). And then for one really great, special, super aircraft. Until all long haul aircraft will be equipped, it will take another 8 years…
Usual LH advertising.

[Author]

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