Business class on narrow body jets within Europe is known for being lackluster, generally just consisting of economy seats with blocked middles and improved service. So there’s an exciting update, as a Lufthansa Group carrier will be installing more comfortable seats in business class on narrow body aircraft.
Ironically, it’s not full service airlines like Lufthansa or SWISS that are doing this, but instead, the group’s low cost carrier, Eurowings.
In this post:
Eurowings trials Premium BIZ seat concept
Eurowings operates a fleet of roughly 80 Airbus A320-family aircraft. While most of the carrier’s routes are short haul and within Europe, the airline also operates some longer flights.
For example, the airline operates several seasonal routes to Dubai (DWC). At nearly 3,000 miles, these are among the more uncomfortable business class flights out there, given that it’s the same disappointing product you’ll find on short haul routes. Fortunately, the airline will soon be running a trial to change that.
Starting later in 2025, Eurowings will be installing “real” business class seats on select Airbus A320neo aircraft. The airline has chosen a reclining business class product from Italian manufacturer Geven, with an adjustable backrest, ergonomic design, and a lot more pitch than you’ll currently find.
For now this is a trial, designed specifically for medium haul routes. The product is expected to first be introduced on the Berlin (BER) to Dubai route as of November 2025, with tickets going on sale as of August 2025.
What’s interesting is that Eurowings will actually offer two tiers of business class. This isn’t in lieu of the existing business class, but rather, is in addition to it. Eurowings BIZclass will continue to be offered, featuring economy seats with blocked middles. Then there will be eight Eurowings Premium BIZ seats at the front of the cabin.
Here’s how Eurowings CEO Jens Bischof describes this move:
“With our new Premium BIZ seat, we offer business travellers and holidaymakers a completely new level of comfort on medium-haul flights. More privacy and a significantly enhanced feel-good atmosphere make longer flights noticeably more pleasant. We are thus setting a new standard in our market segment and clearly positioning Eurowings as Europe’s leading value airline.”
What this new product could mean in the long run
For now, the introduction of proper business class seats is just being described as a trial. However, I think the long term implications could be interesting.
First of all, keep in mind that Eurowings is overhauling its fleet as of 2027, as the airline has 40 Boeing 737 MAXs on order. So it’s possible that whatever is learned from this experiment could be integrated into the cabins of those jets.
Second of all, Eurowings notes that this will “also provide other airlines in the Lufthansa Group with important insights for the future configuration of new aircraft fleets.”
Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll see a “proper” business class introduced on short flights within Europe any time in the foreseeable future (I don’t want to say “never,” but… close enough). However, there are many medium haul markets that might not consistently have demand for wide body aircraft, but where something better than the typical intra-Europe business class is expected.
In the case of Lufthansa or SWISS, we’re talking about destinations like Amman (AMM), Cairo (CAI), Tel Aviv (TLV), etc. These are all destinations where some airlines offer a “proper” business class, while others don’t. Offering a more competitive business class product on narrow body aircraft would allow airlines to better right size capacity while managing expectations.
Bottom line
Eurowings is trialing a new Premium Biz seat concept, whereby the airline will introduce proper recliners in business class on select Airbus A320neos, operating the carrier’s longest routes. Initially, this is intended to address the horrible feedback the airline has been getting about business class on its Dubai route.
However, the airline states that the results of this trial could be used to shape the product offerings on Lufthansa Group carriers in the future. Could we finally see a proper business class product on more narrow body aircraft belonging to European airlines? It would be nice!
What’s your take on Eurowings’ Premium BIZ seat concept?
At least you can be in a much more relaxing position when your pilot flies your plane nosefirst into the Alps.
On a 2-hour flight, I'd much rather have lounge access and a good hot meal with wine than the larger seat with no food and no lounge you get in the USA (if you're lucky, because many times you don't even get a proper airplane and you're crammed into a turbolence-sensitive toy jet}.
IMHO 'proper' business class seats will never be adopted widely in Europe for the following reasons:
1) There is no competitive advantage. The 'eurobusiness' product is almost like a cartel. It offers the airlines maximum flexibility for the airlines in terms of cabin configuration and when NONE of your competition are offering any better why the hell would you lose that flexibility? Yeah OK Turkish do offer a fixed J class but they also use...
IMHO 'proper' business class seats will never be adopted widely in Europe for the following reasons:
1) There is no competitive advantage. The 'eurobusiness' product is almost like a cartel. It offers the airlines maximum flexibility for the airlines in terms of cabin configuration and when NONE of your competition are offering any better why the hell would you lose that flexibility? Yeah OK Turkish do offer a fixed J class but they also use the same aircraft to Europe as they do on 6-7 hour treks to Africa.
2) People just are not prepared to pay for Business Class on short haul flights in europe, well not enough to make a 'proper' intra Europe business class viable economically. I work for one of the large euro carriers and can assure you that the overwhelming majority of passengers in business class on intra-europa flights are connecting to or from long haul flights. Hardly no one is buying a round trip London - Madrid ticket in business class unless they are burning some miles.
3) In Europe the largest carriers of passengers within the continent are the LOCO's - primarily Ryanair and Easyjet. None of the legacy carriers come close to the numbers of passengers they carry.
Re 2) & 1) I would have thought the connecting aspect would be why it would be competitively necessary.
If flying E.g. Barcelona to Phoenix, I would much rather an American airline changing in the USA, so both legs in comfortable seats, rather than changing in Madrid/Paris/London where one has to endure the sardine can for the European leg.
Well, you rebuked your own argument in #1. There are routes where competition with "proper J seat" exists. Not just IST, also CAI, TLV and few others. Still, it's not commercially viable to charge extra for huge seats because no one needs them on short flights (exceptions exist, e.g. ex-LHR routes which are too long and BA is struggling).
Number 2 is just pure wrong. There's plenty of intra-Europe tickets being sold in J. LHG...
Well, you rebuked your own argument in #1. There are routes where competition with "proper J seat" exists. Not just IST, also CAI, TLV and few others. Still, it's not commercially viable to charge extra for huge seats because no one needs them on short flights (exceptions exist, e.g. ex-LHR routes which are too long and BA is struggling).
Number 2 is just pure wrong. There's plenty of intra-Europe tickets being sold in J. LHG and AFKL indeed generally don't (very high price and low quality product), but IAG has a substantial number of J passengers solely on European itineraries. Same can be said about smaller airlines like A3 which doesn't even have any longhaul flights at all and yet flies fairly large J cabins (no, that small number of codeshares is not what's filling them).
The reason why "proper" J seats are not coming to Europe is simply because they're terrible value. The benefit of wider seat on such a short route is basically zero and you are closer to your neighbour, not further so it's actually worse - AND you gotta pay extra for it. If I compare what LHG, A3 or IAG charge for business upgrades, the value is substantially higher than what TK charges.
Samo last time I checked Israel and Egypt are not in Europe. European airlines like BA are constantly swapping these cities between long and short haul aircraft. I can remember operating LHR CAI on a 747! And TLV was always on long haul aircraft.
In terms of TLV there is no need for an explanation as to the change to a short haul aircraft - so few people want to fly there atm. Few...
Samo last time I checked Israel and Egypt are not in Europe. European airlines like BA are constantly swapping these cities between long and short haul aircraft. I can remember operating LHR CAI on a 747! And TLV was always on long haul aircraft.
In terms of TLV there is no need for an explanation as to the change to a short haul aircraft - so few people want to fly there atm. Few airlines are flying there at all given the on again/off again/on again security issues so it makes sense to switch it out to a small aircraft.
CAI, like so many other destinations in the north of Africa the ME3 have siphoned off the North America to CAI traffic. BA/LH/LX all used to operate CAI as a 'long haul' route from their hubs, now all offer a narrow body operation.
Number 2, we can agree to disagree. I work for one of the major carriers in Europe so have seen the data regarding point to point J bookings. But if you know better, who am I to say?
European business class doesn't only come with blocked middle seat but also with lounge access, fast track, additional baggage allowance, and full meal+bar on most routes. Reducing it to the seat itself is a complete misunderstanding of the product and then it's not surprising that one may find it lackluster. If I bought a cat expecting it will behave like a rabbit, I would be disappointed too. It's just not about the seat, it never...
European business class doesn't only come with blocked middle seat but also with lounge access, fast track, additional baggage allowance, and full meal+bar on most routes. Reducing it to the seat itself is a complete misunderstanding of the product and then it's not surprising that one may find it lackluster. If I bought a cat expecting it will behave like a rabbit, I would be disappointed too. It's just not about the seat, it never was, because no one's gonna spend money on a huge pointless chair on a 2 hour trip. The extra space by having a full seat between me and the next passenger is much more useful.
Anyway, as far as I understand these seats won't be used on European routes anyway, just on shorter longhauls where upgrade is indeed due.
Everywhere except Europe still have proper wide well padded Business class recliner seats. All those other stuff are not worth spending 5x fare. It only works in Europe because most of them are a tag from intercontinental flights. People outside Europe are not suckers to pay for what is basically an economy class seat with a meal.
European Business Class had proper seats until the 1980s.
The stated reason for getting rid of them was that the number of Business Class passengers on them varied so much, both by route and time (c100% for London to Geneva Monday mornings and Friday evenings) so it was infeasible to have fleets with the right number of business class seats.
i.e. the complaint from passengers at the time was of Business Class demand...
European Business Class had proper seats until the 1980s.
The stated reason for getting rid of them was that the number of Business Class passengers on them varied so much, both by route and time (c100% for London to Geneva Monday mornings and Friday evenings) so it was infeasible to have fleets with the right number of business class seats.
i.e. the complaint from passengers at the time was of Business Class demand not being met.
Why European airlines decided to make everybody miserable rather than continuing to offer comfort to a limited number is interesting - perhaps in the rest of the world there was less concentration.
If the internet had been around to manage the limited number of seats, it might never have gone.
Pan-Am even had intra-Europe First Class seats out of TXL as late as 1992.
The route network has flights with stops.
I flew BUD-OTP once in them.
Thank you for clarifying the situation back in the day Albert, very interesting.
I've always figured that if one airline manages to find a way to appeal to the hot desk guru without drastically reducing capacity and implementing them on LHR-FRA, CDG-MXP etc, the other airlines will follow.
At least with Eurowings running the trial and not Lufty we'll see those seats around about the time stated. If we leave such things to Lufthansa then the trial stands no chance of beginning this side of the 2040s
Devastated Eurowings didn’t choose the Allegris seat….
This is very weird. EW is a really shitty airline that is included in LH-Group. This means you might be rebooked on EW flights which don't offer Business Class but only BIZclass which is even worse than Euro-business. As LH considers them as not part of LH-Group you can't check-in at LH-Group check-ins but have to use the EW ones that are only staffed at certain times. Also EW is notorious to not paying for delayed or lost luggage without sueing them.
I have flown that route to DWC and it’s brutal. At least you can order anything off the menu in BIZ but economy must be a hellhole.
Are people here really that far removed from reality? Flying six hours in economy is rarely a 'hellhole'. You'd survive.
Survive is really a low bar. I guess you can survive without running water and electricity too, and your home probably has neither given your standards.
Personally, I am all for any improvement in narrow body aircraft seating. Europe is like the U.S. in that it has a growing need for more comfortable business/premium seats. It is only the airlines who would argue against it on cost projection grounds. One hopes that EW are successful with the trial and that such seats are rolled out to other airlines too.
EW has no such trial on European routes, this is for longhaul routes with narrowbodies. I can't comment on the "need" for such seats on shorthaul, but what's lacking in the first place is the demand for them. No one's gonna spend extra 100-200€ on top of already expensive J fares to cover the cost of extra space, especially when such seats would have less privacy than the current ones. What would I do with...
EW has no such trial on European routes, this is for longhaul routes with narrowbodies. I can't comment on the "need" for such seats on shorthaul, but what's lacking in the first place is the demand for them. No one's gonna spend extra 100-200€ on top of already expensive J fares to cover the cost of extra space, especially when such seats would have less privacy than the current ones. What would I do with extra cm between me and the armrest? I much prefer being kept full seat away from my neighbour AND being able to use this space for storage of things.
I can’t see a reason why any European airline would deviate from the pack by offering a significantly differentiated product in short-medium business class, especially on predominantly leisure routes. The current offer provides the right balance between profitability and operational flexibility. Based on my limited experience of flying business on domestic US and short haul European routes, I’d much prefer European where the catering is vastly superior, albeit in a significantly inferior seat.
I can’t see a reason why any European airline would deviate from the pack by offering a significantly differentiated product in short-medium business class, especially on predominantly leisure routes. The current offer provides the right balance between profitability and operational flexibility. Based on my limited experience of flying business on domestic US and short haul European routes, I’d much prefer European where the catering is vastly superior, albeit in a significantly inferior seat.
Remember that these planes fly up to 6 hrs, for example BER-AUH
Now, if only EasyJet would . . .
Sorry Jack, not U2 or RK …. not even lay-flat seating would tempt thinking passengers on board …. :-)
LHR to MXP next Tuesday on BA - £550.00 return
LGW to MXP next Tuesday on Easyjet - £95.00 return
Thinking pax would still head to Gatwick to ride the LCC, I reckon.... :)
That’s a long way to go for a decent pizza Ronnie …. :-)
Rather interesting: So Discover is testing 14inch screens in their A320 (D-AIUQ) and Eurowings is testing Angled Business Class seats in their A320.
I guess Lufthansa is afraid to loose their fifth star by testing product improvements on their A320…
I mean that 5th star was paid for sooooo