One of Europe’s biggest airlines puts doors on business class seats

For the cross-Atlantic traveller, Lufthansa, Europe’s second-largest airline (by passenger numbers), has debuted a new cabin featuring new-generation seats. The highlights of “Lufthansa Allegris” are, as usual, at the pointy end, with business class seats featuring a privacy door – handy when the person across the aisle is snoring loudly.

Revamped business class.

In first class, the seat configuration creates a dreamy double bed. In premium economy, the seats are hard-shell with a 99-centimetre (39-inch) pitch, while in economy, seat pitch is 79 centimetres (31 inches) with 86 centimetres (34 inches) in the front row. There’s also an option to book a free seat next to you.

A new entertainment system applies throughout the cabin.

The comfort and functionality upgrade is now on A350s flying between Munich and Vancouver Canada, with a rollout over the next few months introducing it on flights from Germany to Montreal, Canada and Chicago in the US.

Premium economy.

While the carrier does not currently grace these shores, it wasn’t always so.

The German flag carrier used to fly here, it even had its own version of the Kangaroo Route – the multi-stop hop between Australia and the UK instigated by Qantas and its earlier incarnation, in the first half of the 20th century.

Lufthansa’s kanguru (that’s German for “kangaroo”) route flew between Frankfurt and Sydney (Melbourne was sometimes tagged on, too) with a variety of stops along the way, typically Athens, Karachi or Bombay, then Bangkok and Singapore before landing at Kingsford Smith.

Those multi-stop days are long gone for everyone, and Lufthansa ceased taxiing Australian tarmacs in the 1990s.

However, Lufthansa still connects to Australia.

A peek at first class.

Lufthansa Group Airlines, including Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian, offers 19 gateway cities in the Asia Pacific, connecting to Europe, including Singapore with joint venture partner Singapore Airlines, along with Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

From the gateways in the Asia Pacific region, the group’s Australian passengers have access to the largest network in Europe: more than 200 destinations. Lufthansa and SWISS are founding members of the Star Alliance network and also have interline agreements with Qantas.

All this means that despite the absence of Lufthansa’s simple dark blue livery on Aussie runways, Australia is the German flag carrier’s biggest “offline” market (a market to which an airline does not have direct flights).

Many of us end up on Lufthansa for our onward journeys to Europe after our first stop, which means Australian travellers may eventually experience Lufthansa Allegris.

While no firm date has been set for the cabins to be introduced on Lufthansa’s flights to Asia, the rollout is intended to reach the routes eventually.

See lufthansa.com