Somehow, European airlines have a propensity to overcomplicate their business class cabins. Air France has been guilty of this in the past, and Lufthansa is still guilty right now, having now 6 different business class seats and layouts across its fleet. The latest addition is a newly retrofitted A380 business class seat.
In this post:
- The new cabin details
- No Allegris on the Airbus A380
- The routes for the new Lufthansa A380 business class
- A similar product to the ex-PAL A350-900s
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Lufthansa's newly retrofitted A380 Business Class interior takes off
As many airlines did in the post-Covid wake Lufthansa too had retired its A380 aircraft. However, they soon realized, as the skies opened up for business again, that the A380 was a strategic asset on heavily congested airports and on high-demand routes.
That pushed the airline to bring back the A380 into service; however, the A380 had remained somewhat behind the cabin product available on other modern, newer planes in the Lufthansa fleet.
That has been the case until now.
Now, in 2026, Lufthansa is finally releasing an updated retrofitted version of the Airbus A380 business class cabin interior. They are ditching the 2-2-2 configuration for a more modern and sleeker 1-2-1 configuration, which offers direct aisle access to all passengers as it should be in a modern age as of 2026.
Starting mid-April 2026, Lufthansa will be putting back into service newly retrofitted Airbus A380s with an updated business class cabin.
The first flight is scheduled for April 17th, on Lufthansa's Munich to Boston route.
No Allegris Cabins For the A380
However, Lufthansa is not fitting the Allegris cabins in the Airbus A380. Instead, it will be fitting a custom-designed Thompson Vantage XL seat on the aircraft.
The reason for this choice is purely related to time. Specifically, the time that it would take to get Allegris seats certified for the Airbus A380.
The German national carrier has already had multiple issues and delays getting the seat certified for the Boeing 747-8i. By choosing the Thompson Vantage XL seat, it is taking the safer route which will avoid possible costly delays.
Having a 1-2-1 configuration with the Thompson Vantage XL seat means that Lufthansa will reduce the number of business class seats on its A380s. The aircraft will now feature as more units return to service with the retrofitted cabins:
- 8 first-class seats, in a 1-2-1 configuration
- 68 business class seats, in a 1-2-1 configuration
- 52 premium economy seats, in a 2-4-2 configuration
- 371 economy class seats, in a 3-4-3 configuration
Which routes will then be flown by retrofitted Lufthansa Airbus A380s?
Lufthansa will be initially deploying the newly retrofitted Airbus A380s on five routes, all departing Munich bound for:
- Boston, starting April 17th 2026
- Delhi starting April 21st and ending June 30th
- Los Angeles starting April 18th
- Mumbai starting July 1st
- Washington-Dulles starting April 19th
However, beware that aircraft changes can be applied even last minute, and you might end up flying with the older generation 2-2-2 Lufthansa business class seat on the Airbus A380.
That is because Lufthansa is rolling out gradually its newly configured Airbus A380. Therefore, for the larger part of 2026, there will be the 2014 and the 2026 specs of the A380 business class co-existing within the Lufthansa fleet.
A very similar Business Class to the ex-PAL Lufthansa A350s
If you've flown Lufthansa before on one of its A350s that came from Philippine Airlines, which means aircraft with registration from D-AIVA to D-AIVD, you've already experienced a very similar product to what the A380s will have on board.
In fact, the Thompson Vantage XL is also fitted on these Airbus A350-900s; however, that is a slightly older version of the seat. Traveling on the Airbus A380, you will have an updated, improved version of that A350 seat.
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