Lufthansa’s first Allegris aircraft arrives in Frankfurt

The fraught roll out of Lufthansa’s new business class continues with the delivery of the first Allegris aircraft to be based at Frankfurt Airport.

Up until now Lufthansa has only received new A350s with Allegris seats, which it has stationed in Munich.

A fleet of Boeing 787-9s – numbering in the low teens at least – has been waiting in the US for the Allegris business class cabins to be certificated. (In aviation, new seats must be re-certificated for each aircraft type and layout, often adding complexity and delays.)

Lufthansa has now lost its patience and has taken delivery of the first of these now, with nine more to come before the end of the year. These will all be stationed in Frankfurt, with Toronto the first route to launch in mid-October.

However, there is just one issue. Certification of the business class cabin is not complete, with only Business Studio – the front row, ‘super business’ seat – complete. It means that Lufthansa will operate these aircraft with just four business class seats.

Lufthansa must be hoping that the whole aircraft certification will be finished relatively soon, else it will end up operating without a substantial portion of its most valuable seats.

The addition of Toronto means you’ll now find Allegris on some or all flights to:

• Bengaluru (from Munich)
• Cape Town (from Munich)
• Chicago (from Munich)
• Miami (from Munich)
• Newark/New York (from Munich)
• New York (JFK) (from Munich)
• Shanghai (from Munich)
• Tokyo (from Munich)
• Toronto (from Frankfurt)

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