Lufthansa Unveils New Airbus A350 Business Class

Lufthansa has a new business class seat, to complement its existing aircraft. 

The recently christened ‘München’ Airbus A350-900, is a welcome addition to the German flag carrier’s fleet for customers traveling in the premium section of the cabin. All business class seats on the plane, initially destined for Phillippines Airlines, come with aisle access and increased shoulder space. Meanwhile, they are not the new product teased by Lufthansa five years ago.

Simpleflying reported that on its long-haul fleet (excluding this latestA350), Lufthansa’s premium product consists of the Collins Aerospace Diamond seats in a 2-2-2 layout. While the upgraded Collins Aerospace Super Diamond has received a ton of accolades, its predecessor is beginning to feel somewhat outdated. As such, Lufthansa has embarked on what CEO Karsten Spohr calls ‘one of the largest product modernization projects’ in the airline’s history.

The new ‘München’ A350 features 1-2-1 Thomson VantageXL seats that are 23-24 inches wide and convert into two-meter beds. While indeed an upgrade from the Diamond seat in many respects, they are not the new wonder seat / 220 cm lie-flat bed that Lufthansa first showed images of in 2017 (an announcement which caused SkyTrax to upgrade Lufthansa on a preemptive basis to a five-star carrier).

These are intended to launch with the introduction of the Boeing 777-9, of which the airline is an intended launch customer. The entry into service of Boeing’s new flagship is more than a couple of years off, according to the manufacturer’s estimates.

However, Lufthansa has said it will introduce a ‘new top product’ across all of its travel classes (economy, premium economy, business, and first class) starting next year. Until then, those who want to try out Lufthansa’s new business class A350, registered as D-AIVC, will need to hop on a flight from its namesake city to Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver in Canada.

For premium economy, the modernisation means that the airline will install ZIMPrivacy fixed-shell seats, the same as offered by sister carrier SWISS. These will be installed on Lufthansa’s 19 Boeing 747-8 aircraft.