The figures by themselves are impressive: Lufthansa is installing some 32,000 new seats
on more than 180 aircraft in its short and medium-haul fleet – within the space of just one
year. This will create a new travel experience and ensure greater passenger comfort for customers traveling from UAE onwards to any destination in Europe. Thanks to the new, ergonomically shaped seat with its slim backrest, passengers will now have more than four centimetres extra legroom. As part of the new inflight service concept, passengers travelling in Economy Class will again be offered snacks such as muesli bars and chocolate, even on domestic routes.
"With our new, more comfortable seats, completely revamped cabin and enhanced inflight
service, we are setting new standards on European routes," said Thierry Antinori, member
of the Lufthansa German Airlines Board, presenting the new cabin today in Frankfurt. "The
slimmer seats will also enable us to increase the seating capacity of our short and
medium-haul fleet and thus ensure that we remain competitive in future."
As the newly designed Recaro seats take up less room than the previous seats, up to two
additional rows of seats can be installed on each aircraft. Lufthansa will thus be able to
offer about 2,000 additional seats, which is equivalent to the capacity of twelve Airbus
A320s. The new cabin on European routes will thus not only raise levels of passenger
comfort but also make a substantial contribution towards improving cost efficiency. In all,
Lufthansa is investing about 170 million euros in its new cabin as part of a comprehensive
programme to revamp the airline's inflight product.
In order to provide enough cabin stowage space for all passengers, the backs of the new
seats have been designed with a different angle of inclination, so that the permitted cabin
luggage trolleys fit effortlessly under the seat in front. In the case of Lufthansa's Boeing
737 fleet, the overhead bins have been redesigned and made deeper, so that in future
hand luggage can also be stowed sideways to the direction of travel – as has long since
been possible on Airbus models.
The new seat is also a real bonus from an ecological point of view. Thanks to the
materials used and the seat's innovative structure, each row of seats is more than twelve
kg lighter than the previous seat rows. That is equivalent to an almost 30 per cent
reduction in weight, which in turns lowers specific fuel consumption. In spite of the
additional rows of seats in the cabin, the empty weight of a Boeing 737, for example, is
thus reduced by more than 300 kg. In addition, the Lufthansa Group is pioneering the use
of a lighter, chrome-free – and thus more environmentally friendly – leather for the seat
upholstery. The interior of the backrest is perforated, which ensures high breathability and
also boosts seating comfort.
Lufthansa is also making innovations in its inflight service, and passengers will notice a
tangible difference. Economy Class passengers travelling on domestic routes will not just
be offered the usual wide selection of beverages, but will also be served a snack. On
cross-border European services with a flight time of more than two hours, they will be
offered a hot meal. In future, on its European routes, Lufthansa will cooperate with
renowned chefs. The first one to create menus as part of Lufthansa's new inflight service
is the German star-rated chef Heiko Antoniewicz.
Lufthansa flies daily from Dubai and Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt and daily from Dubai to Munich offering the best connections to well over 100 European cities and some 200 destinations worldwide.
