I think we can all agree that Lufthansa has showed up late to the modern business class party. The German flag carrier is among the largest and most influential airlines in the world. However, despite that it has been operating for way too long a tired and outdated business class cabin. Its peers have made huge advancements in the premium cabin offering, while Lufthansa has stood still. Finally, earlier this year, the carrier introduced its new business class cabin on first the commercial flights. I must say the way though out and designed this cabin is quite convoluted. Every row has a different layout creating an enormous difference in experience depending on which seat you end up in. Now Allegris, which is the name of the new cabin concept, is heading east to China.
Allegris Lufthansa Cabins Available on Munich Shanghai Flights
Lufthansa flight LH726 has become the fifth to receive the new cabin configuration the airline is installing on new planes. The other four destinations to have already seen the Allegris cabins arrive are all in the Americas:
- Vancouver (YVR)
- Toronto (YYZ)
- Chicago (ORD)
This will be the first service featuring the new cabins flying east and of course also the first flying to China. Passengers on flights between Munich (MUC) and Shanghai (PVG) flying on the A350-900 will experience the new Lufthansa onboard product. A hard product that, unsurprisingly, has had overwhelmingly positive feedback when compared with the extremely outdated older cabins.
The Allegris fitted Airbus A350-900 overall features:
- 38 Business Class Seats, including 8 so-called Suites
- 24 Premium Economy Seats in a 2-3-2 layout
- 201 Economy Class Seats in a 3-3-3 layout, with 22 offering extra legroom
Flights with the new cabins have already started flying the LH726 route on August 14th. Therefore, if you are travelling on LH726 in coming days or weeks you will get to try out this new experience.
Why Is Shanghai Strategic for Lufthansa?
Why launch this new business class product first on Shanghai flights out of all Asian destinations? Well, China is a key strategic market for Lufthansa. Prior to covid China represented one of the most lucrative markets for the German carrier. Germany entertained huge economic ties with the Asian country and business travellers were plentiful on these routes.
That hasn’t been the case since 2020 for at least a couple of reasons. China has been one of the latest countries to reopen its borders and allow flights from abroad to enter the country. Then there are the economic issues, China and Germany alike have struggled to recover from the disruption 2020’s events brought along. Therefore, there have been less business travellers making the between the two countries. Finally Chinese carriers have been undercutting all other airlines thanks to state subsidies. Even business class tickets are extremely cheap if you fly with any of the major Chinese carriers.
Lufthansa hopes that business travellers and leisure traveller numbers will start picking up and that with a superior hard product they will be able to attract more customers. That, however, all remains to be proven.
