Lufthansa fits new 'suite plus' cabins onto Airbus A350

“We haven’t publicly announced a date yet, but we have a first aircraft equipped with it and we’re in the middle of introducing it into the aircraft,” Lufthansa Airlines chief customer officer Heiko Reitz revealed to Runway Girl Network on 5 September in Chicago, where the carrier held a special event to celebrate the official inauguration of its Allegris generation of longhaul products in the United States.

Supply chain constraints at seatmaker Collins Aerospace have slowed the rollout of Allegris first class, but those bottlenecks appear to be easing.

“We’re kind of happy with the progress there and at a certain point in time, we’ll also announce the official start date of first class flying,” said Reitz in reference to the initial install.

On 1 May, Lufthansa introduced Allegris on select A350-900 flights from Munich to Vancouver, followed by Munich-Toronto. Since then, passengers on select A350 flights from Munich to San Francisco, Shanghai and now Chicago have been able to experience Allegris business class, premium economy and economy class. But the first class section has been blocked off with a cluster of economy class seats.

Reitz admitted that passengers on his flight to Chicago this week were curious about the blocked space up front and “what’s going to happen there. It’s still under construction and so it’s going to be exciting to see it built.”

There are several notable aspects of the Allegris first class product: the centre section offers a two-seater sofa that converts into a double bed and there’s an interesting new flexible door, as well as new colour, materials and finish.

Five A350s now carry Allegris business class, premium economy and economy class, and “the fifth one is now in the air,” Reitz said. The business class cabin features seven different types of suites (though RGN’s John Walton reckons there are 11 suites with material differences).

But whilst Lufthansa will price these suites differently in time — charging a premium for more premium suites like those offering a longer bed or more privacy — it is not doing so yet.

“Currently we’re still in the introductory phase. We want to get as much customer feedback as possible, learn how people like it. And we’re slowly building up the fleet. Therefore, when we have a significant high amount of aircraft, then we will start really commercializing it,” Reitz explained.

To date, some 120,000 passengers have flown on Allegris aboard more than 500 flights. The feedback has been very positive, with Reitz saying it’s “very exciting to see how people react and how happy they are.” Lufthansa will introduce Allegris on select flights from Munich to Bengaluru and Cape Town at the end of October.

Lufthansa Group carrier Swiss is bringing its Senses-version of these longhaul products to its Airbus A330s; however, as reported by German media and CNN, the high walls and doors of the first-class “suite plus” product are making the A330s nose-heavy. Swiss is having to fit a balancing plate at the back of the aircraft to recenter it.

For its part, Lufthansa is not bringing Allegris first class to its A330s. Reitz told RGN that there are “no issues” with bringing Allegris first class to aircraft types receiving this product at Lufthansa Airlines: namely, the A350, Boeing 787 and Boeing 747-8. This suggests that such issues may be unique to Swiss's use case with their A330s.

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All images credited: Lufthansa