Lufthansa's long-haul premium economy seat will be fitted on its entire long-haul B747-8 fleet by December 10, it has been announced.
The new seat, which will be rolled out from November, is available to book now on routes from Frankfurt to Buenos Aires, Chicago, Hong Kong, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Beijing and Washington, DC.
From January next year, the first A340-600 aircraft retrofitted with the premium economy seating will take-off from Munich to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo.
And, from late April 2015, the seat will be aboard Lufthansa's A380-800 aircraft on its routes from Frankfurt to Johannesburg, New York, Miami, Houston, San Francisco, Shanghai and Singapore.
To view Business Traveller's Flickr slideshow of the Lufthansa premium economy cabin, click here
By summer 2015, it will be retrofitted across the airline's long-haul fleet and on all new deliveries.
Lufthansa board member Jens Bischof said: "We have had an incredible response for our premium economy class since its launch event, particularly from passengers who we are trying to reach with this new offer.
"The premium economy travel experience will now be even more within reach — up to 50 per cent more personal space at attractive prices and already honoured with an award as a product in the premium segment."
The German airline unveiled the seat in March at the ITB trade fair in Berlin (see news, March 5).
The new seats will be located in a "clearly identifiable" separate premium economy compartment between business and economy. Each premium economy area will contain between 21 and 52 seats, depending on the aircraft type.
Again depending on the aircraft, the seats will be up to three centimetres wider and have approximately ten centimetres more room at the side as each one has its own wide armrest and a centre console between the seats.
As previously reported, the new seat is aimed squarely at business travellers as 70 per cent of these currently fly economy, the airline said.
Its premium economy ticket prices will be "closer to economy class then business class — a return flight across the North Atlantic or to Asia will cost an additional 600 euros on average".
Graham Smith
