German flag carrier Lufthansa has confirmed that it will fly brand new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners with empty Business Class seats because they are yet to be certified for use by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States.
Lufthansa has 34 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on order as part of a plan to replace its ageing fleet of gas-guzzling Airbus A330-600s. The first deliveries were expected by the end of 2024, but significant issues with the Business Class have repeatedly pushed that timeline back.
In fact, at least 15 of these multi-million-dollar airplanes have already been built and are waiting to be handed over to Lufthansa, but they are currently sitting idle at Boeing manufacturing plants because of the embarrassing certification fiasco.
Lufthansa’s factory-fresh fleet of Dreamliners will feature a brand new Business Class cabin that has been in the works since 2017, but which didn’t end up debuting until May 2024 after years of delays and setbacks.
Rather than buying an ‘off the shelf’ Business Class seat, Lufthansa decided to create a bespoke product which it dubbed Allegris. Rather unusually, Allegris isn’t just one Business Class seat but five, with different features to suit the varying needs of passengers.
The end product is a pretty confusing mishmash of different seats that has proven difficult to build and certify.
The Allegris seats for Lufthansa’s Airbus A350s are built by Thompson Aero and are already in service after being certified for use by European aviation regulators.
In contrast, Boeing’s Allegris seats for its Boeing 787s are being built by Collins Aerospace and need to be certified by the US FAA as the planes are assembled in the United States.
What is Lufthansa’s Allegris Product?
In 2017, Lufthansa announced a major upgrade program for its long-haul fleet, which it dubbed Allegris. In short, Allegris is a new range of seats for every cabin class, ranging from First Class to Economy.
Allegris has proven to be an ill-fated, costly, and long-delayed project for Lufthansa, with the first aircraft to be fitted out with the new seats only taking to the skies in May 2024… Even then, the First Class cabin wasn’t finished, and the aircraft was initially deployed with a row of Economy seats installed where the First Class cabin should have been.
In Business Class, Lufthansa has designed a fully bespoke project with direct aisle access at every seat but with varying levels of privacy and comfort between different seats in the same cabin. The idea is that Lufthansa will be able to monetize these seats better by getting passengers to pay more for the most comfortable seats.
While unconfirmed by Lufthansa, there have been reports that the FAA has had concerns over the performance of the Allegris seats in crash tests and had ordered more work before it would certify the seats.
As a result, Lufthansa decided not to take delivery of the airplanes until it was closer to achieving the necessary certification.
Chief executive Carsten Spohr, however, now says that the airline will start taking delivery of its Dreamliners in September, even if the FAA hasn’t certified them by this point.
The airline then intends to deploy the planes on flights between Frankfurt and Montreal, although without all or nearly all of the Allegis Business Class seats blocked out.
By the end of 2025, Lufthansa hopes to have taken delivery of 10 Boeing 787s, at which point it intends to retire the last six Airbus A340-600s in its fleet. By this point, Spohr is hoping the Allegris seats will also be certified for passenger use.
Matt’s take
Lufthansa’s Allegris project will undoubtedly become a case study in how not to develop a new onboard product for many years to come. While the airline seems committed to the project, it has proven incredibly costly, and it remains to be seen whether passengers will ever wrap their heads around the confusing seating options.
Along with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fiasco, the Allegris project has run into a number of other difficulties, including:
- The Allegris First Class seat faced its own certification woes, and when Lufthansa started flying its first Allegris-equipped Airbus A350, there was an empty space at the very front of the plane where the First Class cabin was meant to be installed. Thankfully, this issue has now been rectified.
- Some Allegris Economy Class seats on the Airbus A350 also had to be blocked out from passenger use due to certification issues with seatbelt airbags installed on seven seats immediately behind Premium Economy.
- Lufthansa plans to install Allegris seats on its Boeing 747 jumbo jets, but the upper deck won’t be immediately refitted with the new Business Class cabin because the Allegris seats don’t fit in the tighter floor space.
- The airline also intends to refit its fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos in the coming years, but an off-the-shelf Business Class seat will be installed on these planes.
I see no evidence of “red tape”.
If the manufacturer/airline didn’t do all the safety testing, or cut corners, I am very GLAD the FAA is withholding approval.
I remember you being extremely critical of the FAA reducing red tape in the approval of the MAX’s MCAS system; please don’t be a hypocrite.
Hi,
Just a small correction, the gas-guzzling Airbus are not A330-600s, but A340-600s 😉
I recently flew the new Lufthansa A350 Allegris from Mumbai to Munich with my 11-year-old daughter. The plane and onboard comfort were excellent.
What surprised me: after paying for business class, you still have to pay nearly $1,500 extra just to choose seats together — now called their “suite” option. Even for a parent traveling with a child. Had I known, I would’ve reconsidered.
Thankfully, the kind check-in staff helped us sit together at the back of the cabin. It wasn’t ideal, but the flight itself was smooth and comfortable.
the following statement “Allegris isn’t just one Business Class seat but five, with different features to suit the varying needs of passengers. The end product is a pretty confusing” makes no sense.
This implies a custom is not able to decide between the 5 different seats, that this might be to coplicated and confusing. Like a extra tall person would be able to choose the “Seat with Extra-Long Bed” !?
Overall, the Allegris concept reimagines Business Class not as a one-size-fits-all product, but as an à la carte experience. By offering differentiated seating, Lufthansa empowers passengers to pay for precisely the comfort, privacy, and features that suit their journey, improving satisfaction for the travelers.
With a change of administration is probably harder to find the right people to pay off.