Bits: Singapore Airlines to serve caviar in business?, Lufthansa brings Allegris to Frankfurt

News in brief:

Singapore Airlines to serve caviar in business class?

The race between the world’s best airlines is hotting up.

Last year Qatar Airways became the first airline to serve caviar in business class, albeit only on some routes and only on day flights. You can read our review of the Qatar Airways caviar experience here.

It may have contributed to Qatar Airways’ placement at the top of Skytrax’s (totally meaningless, given several controversies) World’s Top Airlines this year.

Singapore Airlines is currently in second place and is clearly coveting the top spot, which it last held in 2022.

Mile Lion (the closest site you’ll find to HfP in Singapore) is now reporting on a tender issued by the airline for “Supply of Farmed Caviar for Business Class”. It was issued a few weeks ago and closes on the 12th September.

If it comes to fruition, Singapore Airlines would become the third airline to offer caviar in business class following Qatar Airways and Thai Airways, which started offering it earlier this year. United will also offer a caviar amuse bouche in its new ‘super business’ Polaris Studio seats.

At this early stage we don’t know which routes might offer it, although I suspect premier long haul routes such as London and New York would feature the service.

Whether you enjoy caviar or not, it is clearly a marker of luxury given its expense and reputation. Personally, I’m a big fan and look forward to trying it onboard Singapore Airlines in the future. It will certainly make Singapore Airlines’ already excellent meal service even better.

We will keep you updated once we know more. In the meantime, our review of Singapore Airlines business class on the A350 is here.

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)