Lufthansa expects to take delivery of its first Allegris-fitted Boeing 787-9 towards the end of the summer in September. But a “big portion” of the new business class cabin will initially be blocked due to protracted seat certification issues, CEO Carsten Spohr has confirmed.
During the firm’s 2Q 2025 earnings conference call on 31 July, and as a short-term solution, Spohr said Lufthansa will only use the forthcoming new 787-9 with blocked seats “initially, for example, to destinations like Montreal where we don’t have much business class demand and we already put into the booking system.”
“By the end of the year,” he added, the partners on the program — Boeing, seatmaker Collins Aerospace, and the US Federal Aviation Administration — “expect that certification to be arriving. By the end of the year we hope to release all seats to the market.”
At least 15 Lufthansa 787-9s are parked at Boeing’s Charleston, South Carolina factory. Ten of the twinjets should be delivered before year-end, Spohr said.
Lufthansa’s Allegris business class is configured in an alternating 1-2-1 and 1-1-1 layout, and boasts at least five (originally billed as seven) different types of all-aisle-access, lie-flat seats which make the most of unused space in the cabin.
The seats have enjoyed a very positive reception from passengers on the ten Allegris-equipped Airbus A350-900s now flying for Lufthansa. And Spohr said on the 31 July earnings call that A350 passengers are showing a “high willingness” to pay for the various seating options in business class. Want more space or privacy? Seats are priced accordingly.
The Allegris business class seat certification challenges are unique to the 787 Dreamliner, he said. And they have clearly dragged on for longer than expected.
During a 5 March conference call to report 2024 earnings, Spohr confided that he hoped to deploy the aircraft this summer on mid-haul routes, even if some of the seats had to be blocked. He also warned that the “fundamental bottlenecks” besetting manufacturers in aviation “will probably continue to affect us until the end of the decade.”
Related Articles:
- Lufthansa eyes summer delivery of Boeing 787-9s with Allegris
- Lufthansa lounge at Newark delights with seat choice, Allegris touches
- Lufthansa Allegris front-row Business Suite mostly impresses
Featured image credited to Lufthansa
