Lufthansa is to take an axe to some of its first class seats aboard its international services by 25% according to Bloomberg.
The cuts will be targeted in two ways – on certain routes (such as Vancouver) and plane classes (Airbus A340-300 and Boeing 747-400).
Chief Executive Officer Christoph Franz says:
“They’ll serve routes where there is simply no more demand for first class”
For Lufthansa, who have 94 out of 100 planes long haul planes with First Class seats, it boils down to who will actually pay to sit in those seats – and pay the hard cash as opposed to others who dip into miles to pay for First.
So what’s going in their place? Business Class seats. As Lufthansa is at a halfway point through refurbishing its fleet, with first class seats being looked at. These have been installed from the get-go on the 747-8i, and are being deployed the A380, newer Boeing 747-400’s, A330’s and unspecified A340’s (probably the -600 subclass).
Lufthansa is also deploying its new Business Class product too its plane but is being careful about how they are doing it. Most of the current business class product is a wedgie/angle seat, with the airline deploying fully flat. As a result, this can compromise space down the back of the plane.
Christoph Franz says:
“We need to be extremely careful. We must make sure our seat design takes up a lot less extra space compared to rivals as our business class is so much larger. You need to save some space for economy.”
Considering Lufthansa is also squeezing Premium Economy in too, this could prove to be fun – there’s only so much room on a plane.
It’s a tough balance to get right – and whilst this may disappoint upgraders, there is the commercial fact that if there’s no one in the seat, the airline isn’t making money. Cutting First from very low yield routes like this will create more space for Business and Premium Economy, seemingly where the money is these days.
Meanwhile, some interesting news has turned up form Sueddeutsche Zeitung (Google Translated) has indicated that the next round of major purchasing will be to replace the A340’s in the fleet – with the Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 in contention when the order comes.
Never let it be said the aviation business stands still.
