We’ve covered the Airspace by Airbus cabin on Economy Class and Beyond a fair bit – both in Wide-body aircraft and in narrow-body.
Now, Lufthansa joins the club, with the airline rolling out on its new narrow-body aircraft.
Lufthans A321neo with Airspace by Airbus installed – Image, Lufthansa
It will appear initially aboard an Airbus A321neo, operating Frankfurt to Fuerteventura. There will be further sightings of the Airspace by Airbus cabin, with the cabin being planned for use across the Lufthansa Group family – including Swiss, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings
Airspace by Airbus is a product that tries to blend a better passenger experience aboard the aircraft. In the Lufthansa implementation, it will use the Geven Essenza seat. In previous setups, this has been at 29″ seat pitch, with USB Power installed for passengers to charge devices.
The seat pitch – Image, Lufthansa
The aircraft will feature overhead bins that have a forty per cent larger volume and can even hold sixty per cent more suitcases, as they can be stowed vertically in the bins.
Remember, bags go sideways – Image, Lufthansa.
The cabin design and the entrance area have been extensively redesigned and now appear brighter and friendlier.
So-called Human Centric Lighting (designed by JetLite and covered by me in live use here), a specially programmed, flexible lighting system, illuminates the cabin in warm red light, graduated intermediate tones to colder blue light. Depending on the time of day or night, the light in the aircraft cabin is thus geared to the passengers’ biorhythms.
Seating comfort has also been improved: the sidewalls of the Airspace Cabin will in the future offer passengers more space in the shoulder area.
For those who are in need of the small room, the modern washrooms are even more usable for people with limited mobility.
In Quotes
Heike Birlenbach, Head of Customer Experience, Lufthansa Group said
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“Regardless of the crisis, we continue to focus emphatically on a premium offering for our guests,”
“For us, premium means providing high-quality, individualized and relevant offers for all our passengers at all times. With the new Airspace Cabin, we are significantly improving the travel experience on short-haul routes.”
It seems that the 29″ seat pitch is now “Premium”
It’s welcome to see some of the passenger-friendly changes – such as larger overhead bins and JetLites Human Centric lighting. However, that comes at the cost of leg comfort with a 29″ seat pitch.
Whilst seating has improved in economy class, with these seats being optimised to be lighter and offering more leg space (and thus lower costs for the airline), it does feel like passengers are being crammed in further for an extra row or two of seats to be installed.
Again – the proof of this will be in the pudding when the aircraft flies Saturday.
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