For an airline that’s typically the poster child for German efficiency, Lufthansa sure as hell doesn’t make it easy to keep track of which of their planes feature the new first and business class products.
Last year I wrote a post about how to tell if your Lufthansa flight features the new first and business class products, and fortunately Lufthansa made it a bit easier last year when they introduced a tracking toolbar to figure out if your flight is operated by Lufthansa’s new first class. Unfortunately that doesn’t really help with tracking whether a flight features the new business class, though…
One question I’ve been receiving a lot lately is when Lufthansa’s A380s will feature the new business class product. While all the A380s were delivered with the new first class product, it’s rather odd that they introduced such an outdated business class product on their flagship aircraft.
Lufthansa new first class on the A380
Up until recently there haven’t really been any useful updates to provide regarding new business class on the A380, though we finally have some information.
From hereon out Lufthansa’s new A380 deliveries will feature the new business class product. Lufthansa is scheduled to take delivery of their next A380s on the following dates:
- February 28, 2014
- March 31, 2014
Furthermore, Lufthansa currently has one A380 that’s in the process of being retrofitted, so that should be completed soon as well.
That means that by the end of the first quarter, Lufthansa should have at least three A380s featuring the new business class product. At that point 12 A380s will be in service for Lufthansa, meaning 25% of the fleet will have the new business class.
Lufthansa has ordered a total of 15 A380s, so I expect the three subsequent A380 deliveries to also feature the new business class product.
Lufthansa A380
Lufthansa has already published the seatmap for the new delivery A380s, and it appears as if they’ll feature 92 business class seats:
This is only a six seat drop in capacity over the A380 featuring the old business class, which has 98 seats.
It appears as if this will be a slightly modified version of their new business class product, though. Per SeatGuru, here’s part of the business class seatmap for Lufthansa’s 747-8:
Similarly, as you can see in the picture below, the new business class seats are angled towards one another:
Lufthansa’s new business class on the 747-8
Based on the A380 seatmap above, it appears as if the seat pairs will actually both angle in the same direction. This isn’t really surprising given that the A380 upper deck is significantly narrower than the 747-8 lower deck.
Lufthansa hasn’t yet announced which routes the new A380s will service, though. If I notice Lufthansa changing any seatmaps online to reflect the new business class product I’ll be sure to post. That being said, at least in the next couple of months there will be a chance of having a flight featuring the new business class cabin.
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