Beleaguered German flag carrier Lufthansa has warned that its brand new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will be forced to fly with 85% of its Business Class cabin blocked out, and the US government shutdown is further delaying certification of these seats.
Lufthansa took delivery of its first factory-fresh 787 Dreamliner last month, and after several weeks of pilot and crew training, it was officially inaugurated into the airline’s fleet at Frankfurt Am Main Airport on Tuesday.
The first of 10 Dreamliners that Lufthansa is expected to take delivery of by the end of the year is meant to herald in a new era for Lufthansa at Frankfurt – the first widebody aircraft to fly from Germany’s financial capital with the airline’s new Allegris concept seats.
There is, however, one major problem: As the aircraft is manufactured in the United States, it is up to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to complete all the certification work, and there’s been a major hold-up with the Business Class seats.
The problem has been dragging on for months, with around 15 of Lufthansa’s Dreamliners sitting idle at Boeing’s factories waiting to be delivered while the red tape is dealt with.
In the end, Lufthansa decided it couldn’t wait any longer and decided to start taking the planes even before the certification work was complete. The first aircraft will fly with 24 of the 28 seats in the Business Class cabin blocked from passenger use, although the hope was that the final paperwork would be signed off within weeks.
Those hopes, however, have been dashed by the US government shutdown, Lufthansa’s chief executive Carsten Spohr admitted during the inauguration ceremony on Tuesday.
“The shutdown means that FAA employees who we need for certifications and licensing do not show up for duty at this time,” Spohr commented.
Surprisingly, Spohr believes the shutdown will only result in a further “minor” delay, although it’s worth mentioning that Lufthansa originally planned to get its hands on its Dreamliners late last year.
One of the issues with Lufthansa’s Allegris concept is that regulators don’t just have to certify one seat type, but a mish-mash of different designs. So far, the FAA has only been happy to certify four Business Class Suites that are located at the very front of the Business Class cabin.
Perhaps surprisingly, the Allegris seats installed on the Boeing 787s are the same as those being fitted on Lufthansa’s Airbus A350s. The difference, however, is that European regulators were responsible for certifying the seats on the A350, and no major issues cropped up during this process.
In contrast, the FAA reportedly raised concerns stemming from crash testing and asked for further work to be completed before they would sign off the seats as being safe.
The FAA could be on the cusp of signing off on those final approvals, but even if that is the case, Lufthansa will have to wait until the US federal government reopens before it can start selling these seats.
Lufthansa has been flying its first Allegris-equipped Boeing 787 between Frankfurt and Toronto, Canada, since October 9. In the coming months, it plans to deploy the 787-9 on routes from Frankfurt to Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Hyderabad, and Austin.
Matt’s Take – What an absolute mess
The rollout of Lufthansa’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is proving to be an operational disaster for the airline. The rising costs associated with the ill-conceived Allegris concept must be astronomical, and it’s not like Lufthansa can blame anyone else apart from itself.
At this point, you really have to question how Lufthansa’s board has any faith left in Carsten Spohr. During his long tenure at the airline, he has seemingly focused every effort on slashing costs – often, it seems, to the detriment of passengers and employees.
Now, the airline has not only been left with a shattered brand, but it’s still hemorrhaging money from costly mistakes associated with Allegris. What a mess.
At least they’re trying, unlike some of their competitors…. BAs roll out of “updated” cabins and seats is so glacial that the first “club suites” will be beyond tired by the time they complete their fleet, which still uses 20+ year old cabins for a large minority of the fleet. In their case such delays would hardly register!