Lufthansa buys 27,000 new seats

The long-haul passengers of the Lufthansa Group should have a more comfortable life: the airline wants to have 27,000 new seats installed in its machines in the coming years.

That said Lufthansa Airlines boss Jens Ritter in Munich on Wednesday evening. The new seats are part of a program called “Allegris” with which Lufthansa aims to make flying more pleasant for passengers.

Ritter estimated the group’s planned investments up to 2025 to improve products and services at 2.5 billion euros, 80 percent of which for the actual Lufthansa. As is well known, the group also includes Swiss and the airlines Austrian, Eurowings and Brussels.

Lufthansa’s management focuses in particular on wealthy customers: in Business Class alone, passengers can choose from seven different seat types, including the ‘suite concept’.

Also new machine

According to Ritter, 24 new long-haul aircraft will enter service this year and next. “Lufthansa has the right to remain a premium airline,” said the manager. Lufthansa suffered huge losses in the first two Corona years, 2020 and 2021, and last year a series of flight cancellations and delays damaged the airline’s reputation.

To prevent a recurrence, Lufthansa has shortened its flight schedule. According to Ritter, 66 percent of the machines in Frankfurt were on time during the Easter holidays and 78 percent at the second hub in Munich. “We turned every stone over,” he said

Lufthansa is complaining about the high costs of this year’s strike wave, the consequences of which will affect the company even if its own staff does not strike. “Except for the first 14 days of this year, there was not a week without strikes by third parties,” said Ritter. “We have to rebook 200,000 guests for a full day of strike.”

Strikes aside, the two-week NATO exercise “Air Defender” in June is expected to have an impact on civilian air traffic. “We airlines are actually the ones who have to bear all the costs,” Ritter said. “That should change in the future.” (aeg/sda/awp/dpa)