It’s an exciting day for Lufthansa, as the Star Alliance carrier is taking delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 with its new Allegris cabins. It remains to be seen when most of the business class seats can actually be used, though.
In this post:
Lufthansa’s Allegris Dreamliners bound for Frankfurt!
Lufthansa is working on renewing its long haul fleet, and a large part of that involves taking delivery of 34 brand new Boeing 787-9s.
The airline already has five Dreamliners in its fleet, but they have non-standard interiors. That’s because they were actually intended for Hainan Airlines, but Lufthansa acquired them opportunistically, and eventually they’re expected to fly for Lufthansa Group carrier Austrian.
The 34 upcoming Dreamliner deliveries are all expected to feature Lufthansa’s new Allegris interiors, including the new business class, premium economy, and economy (they won’t feature first class). They’ll all be based in Frankfurt (FRA), and should operate long haul flights.
Lufthansa actually has over a dozen of these 787s ready to go, but aspects of their interiors haven’t been certified, which is why they’ve been grounded. Nonetheless, there’s now a major update — Lufthansa is taking delivery of its first new 787 today. Specifically, the aircraft with the registration code D-ABPF is the first to be delivered, and the plane is already over a year old.
The aircraft is expected to fly from Everett (PAE) to Frankfurt (FRA) this evening, with the flight number LH9789. It will depart this afternoon, and will then arrive at its new home tomorrow morning, after a 5,081-mile journey. The expectation is that Lufthansa will take delivery of several of these jets in the coming weeks, given how many of them are in storage.
Entry into service for these planes will be complicated
While it’s exciting that Lufthansa will take delivery of its first purpose built Boeing 787-9, the entry into service for these planes will be complicated. As I’ve covered in a separate post, the issue is that Lufthansa has been struggling with getting the business class seats on these planes certified.
Some of these Dreamliners have been grounded for over a year due to this, but Lufthansa is now moving forward with taking delivery of these planes anyway. As you’d expect, it’s a bit of a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.
In the coming weeks, we should see Lufthansa start to fly these new Dreamliners within Europe, prior to having them start transatlantic flying in October. The catch is that only four of the 28 business class seats can actually be sold to passengers, since only the business class suites in the first row are certified. The rest of the seats will have to remain empty for the foreseeable future, until certification comes through.
It’s anyone’s guess how long that takes — Lufthansa is hoping the seats will be certified by the end of the year, but who knows…
Bottom line
Lufthansa is today taking delivery of its very first Boeing 787-9 with new Allegris interiors (yay!). Unfortunately most of the business class seats aren’t yet certified, so Lufthansa will have a bit of a headache with these seats for quite some time (boo!).
It goes without saying that Lufthansa has had quite the struggle getting its planes with Allegris cabins into service, though this is at least another step forward. I hope these cabins get certified soon, since it would be nice to basically have the number of Allegris long haul planes in service double overnight.
What do you make of Lufthansa’s first Allegris Boeing 787 delivery?
Industry leading passenger-to-lavatory ratio. Truly 5*. Lufthansa always leading and trailblazing.
The board of directors can now fly to their retirement destinations.
One way tickets.
AND START FRESH, LUFTY.
Who is throttling all this certification? It's every airline these days.
Can't we as a society decide to get rid of whatever lazy government employee is running that scam and do something ourselves?
I don't give a flying f* about what some they-them thinks about Lufthansa's seats. I just want to fly.
Great article. Make me go elsewhere to learn why the seats are unable to be certified.
Me too. I hate this train of thought, but man it seems like they'll do anything to keep people from moving about freely. The same people flying private jets, mind you.
Remember: nobody owns the world. We all do. And we all deserve a chance to go see it.
Also if you're not some marketing-made, private-jet-flying pasty white girl singing about nail polish or whatever while scamming teenage girls out of every cent...
Me too. I hate this train of thought, but man it seems like they'll do anything to keep people from moving about freely. The same people flying private jets, mind you.
Remember: nobody owns the world. We all do. And we all deserve a chance to go see it.
Also if you're not some marketing-made, private-jet-flying pasty white girl singing about nail polish or whatever while scamming teenage girls out of every cent they have.
I will care about muh climate the day Taylor Swift stops flying private to wherever she's gyrating her sad late-30s pelvic floor next.
You sound very well-adjusted.
You must really be looking forward to your next date night.
Lufty: My 'new' seats are here. But they're completely unusable.
ScamTrax: Here, have another two stars. One for your unusable seat, and one for your 'new' uniforms debuting next decade.
Lufty: Yay! Me a genuine 7 star airline now.
Allegris is just a desaster……..i will never understand why LH didn’t order any of these nice standard seats, that are already certified ..
What routes is it scheduled on within EU?
It’s easy to sharpshoot an issue as apparently simple as, “a seat.” Unfortunately, and unknown to most, certification of any aircraft seat is by far the most difficult of all certification requirements for a new aircraft. There are multiple issues to be considered in a seat but the requirement that is most likely to become the hurdle is, “the download lumbar maximum load test.” If this is the case, and Lufthansa is interested, I humbly...
It’s easy to sharpshoot an issue as apparently simple as, “a seat.” Unfortunately, and unknown to most, certification of any aircraft seat is by far the most difficult of all certification requirements for a new aircraft. There are multiple issues to be considered in a seat but the requirement that is most likely to become the hurdle is, “the download lumbar maximum load test.” If this is the case, and Lufthansa is interested, I humbly offer our services as the only, albeit small seat manufacturer, to certify a non stroking (simple) pilot/passenger seat using our patented components and deep experience in dynamic seat design and testing using FAA approved test procedures and practices.
As well as certification, comfort should not be overlooked. Oregon Aero has designed and manufactured painless, crashworthy seats and cushions for both military and civilian applications for thirty-six years.
Thank you,
Mike Dennis CEO
Oregon Aero Inc
oregonaero.com
>Unfortunately, and unknown to most, certification of any aircraft seat is by far the most difficult of all certification requirements for a new aircraft.
Lol, Mikey, listen up: it's a miracle real engineers made us able to fly to places.
Getting government stamps on a ... chair ... is *not* the most difficult part of anything. I'll take my chances with people who actually produce things of value over whatever value you think you bring to the table.
My god.
LH should still go ahead and market these seats, albeit at a discount, to those J passengers who are willing to sign a biding waiver in case of any detrimental body injury/mishap... Call it a LH-prenup...
It is also worth noting this will be the first 787 for Lufthansa with RR Trent engines as opposed to the GE GEnx engines.
Best comment of the day, sincerely the best
Wow. I cannot wait to see the results of the new 'centralised' LH group management.
The same people that managed to commission a new J seat for dozens of widebodies that they hadn't the faintest hint might ever be certified, and who chose a first class seat for SWISS that requires a multi-tonne weight in the back of the plane, will now make all route and operational decisions.
What could possibly go wrong?
Spirit should merge with Lufthansa.
Spirit wouldn’t sink so low.
In other news that I am certain Ben will want to cover is that Spirit has filed chapter 22 - or its 2nd chapter 11
They deserve 8 skytrax stars for creating the most spacious business class ever.
I remember when CX took delivery of their first A350, one of the rows of the mini cabin couldn't be sold or occupied inflight due to certification issues for quite some time; the issue was with Zodiac (taken over by Safran).
So the issue here most likely lies with the OEM which in this case happens to be apparently 3 manufacturers! Yes, 3 manufacturers for one business class seat!
https://www.lufthansagroup.com/media/themen/lufthansa-allegris/LHG_Allegris_Factsheet_220426_EN.pdf
I remember when CX took delivery of their first A350, one of the rows of the mini cabin couldn't be sold or occupied inflight due to certification issues for quite some time; the issue was with Zodiac (taken over by Safran).
So the issue here most likely lies with the OEM which in this case happens to be apparently 3 manufacturers! Yes, 3 manufacturers for one business class seat!
https://www.lufthansagroup.com/media/themen/lufthansa-allegris/LHG_Allegris_Factsheet_220426_EN.pdf
The seat manufacturers must ensure their own 'off the shelf' designs can be certified for each aircraft type. However, when an airline orders and oversees design on a 'custom' product it is that airline's responsibility to ensure the product can be certified - as you say, especially when using multiple manufacturers.
Obviously, this is ideally and normally done before aircraft actually start delivering...
And yet United managed to have their custom Polaris seats certified before building 30+ planes with unusable seats. Perhaps Lufthansa took so long committing to the seats, everyone that thought they would ever be built have moved out by now.
In case you didn’t know, Lufthansa means Hot Mess Express in German
Hm. Not sure I'm ready to take "Lufthansa's next-gen cabins" off of my Great Pumpkin list just yet.
Airbus and Boeing have both been incredibly patient with seat certification issues but there is only so much time that they are willing to wait to get paid for aircraft that are finished from their perspectives. Seats are a customer choice even though the seat manufacturers have to work w/ the airplane manufacturers.
It will be interesting how much LH will lose flying these in the winter when there is much less leisure demand making...
Airbus and Boeing have both been incredibly patient with seat certification issues but there is only so much time that they are willing to wait to get paid for aircraft that are finished from their perspectives. Seats are a customer choice even though the seat manufacturers have to work w/ the airplane manufacturers.
It will be interesting how much LH will lose flying these in the winter when there is much less leisure demand making having premium seats all the more important.
I saw this one in the air a week ago as it was on its way to land at PAE.... I'm guessing it was finishing one of its last test flights....
What a waste of fuel and money and general slap in the face to the environment to be flying these planes around with empty seats because something so lacking in foresight and preparation by the airline.
In a masterclass of corporate foresight, Lufthansa — under the ever-audacious Carsten Spohr — has taken delivery of a flagship aircraft whose crown-jewel business class is about as functional as a chocolate teapot.
When your obsession with slicing, dicing, and monetizing every inch of the cabin results in 24 out of 28 seats being legally unusable, you’ve rather spectacularly outsmarted yourself.
But no matter — passengers can still admire the Allegris seats they can’t sit...
In a masterclass of corporate foresight, Lufthansa — under the ever-audacious Carsten Spohr — has taken delivery of a flagship aircraft whose crown-jewel business class is about as functional as a chocolate teapot.
When your obsession with slicing, dicing, and monetizing every inch of the cabin results in 24 out of 28 seats being legally unusable, you’ve rather spectacularly outsmarted yourself.
But no matter — passengers can still admire the Allegris seats they can’t sit in. A fitting metaphor for Lufthansa’s premium strategy: all hat, no cattle.
And yet many people like SPohr continue to fail upwards.
Totally agree that "greed" often leads to downfall when the customer welfare is the least consideration.
Maximum Respect! That was brilliantly hilarious!!
Hopefully the board of LH is reading so they can finally send Spohr packing. This “allegris project” should be a Harvard MBA case study of corporate failure.
At least you’ll have more privacy if you’re flying business class on it…I think.