luxury from 20,000 euros per ticket also in Europe – Corriere.it

Luxury is back on board aircraft. And this time the protagonists are almost all Europeans. On intercontinental flights in the coming months we will see the suites, complete with a double bed (for those who want it), armchairs with walls that allow almost total privacy, screens with 4K resolution for on-board entertainment, legroom also for those as tall as basketball players. After years in which Asian carriers (Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific) and Middle Eastern carriers (Emirates, Qatar Airways, Etihad), then US carriers (Delta Air Lines, United Air Lines), have shown passengers from the Old Continent how to fly at five stars even at high altitudes, in the last few weeks from Madrid to Paris to Frankfurt the response has arrived, from over 3 billion euros of investment, from European airlines.

German investments

The most significant investments, for now, have been announced by Lufthansa (together with its associate Swiss). The German giant – which is in talks to join Ita Airways – presented Allegris in recent days, the initiative which between 2024 and 2025 will bring new generation aircraft – the Boeing 787, the Boeing 777-9, the Airbus A350 – and also in the Boeing 747-8 already in service the First class and a completely redone Business. The total investment will be 2.5 billion euros for the improvement of the offer, comments Lufthansa in a note. About 30,000 seats with the new product will be installed in one hundred long-haul aircraft of the Lufthansa group, says al Courier a spokesman for the German giant of the skies. On the Airbus A350 there will be 3-4 seats in First class, 30 in Business, 24 in Premium economy, 22 in Economy plus and 179 in Economy, he continues. On the Boeing 787 there will be 4 seats in Prima, 24 in Business, 28 in Premium economy, 34 in Economy plus and 197 in Economy.

High end

The First Class suite – the most notable point of Lufthansa’s presentation – is a real personal space in which to stay, sleep, chat, work, spend time, eat. There will be a minibar, a door that isolates from the outside world, a 27-inch screen, a wardrobe space. Placed in the first row of seats, the central suites can also be combined to allow those traveling as a couple to have their own area. In Business there will be walls 1.17 meters high which will help to have more protection, together with a seat that becomes a two-metre bed.

Swiss’s move

In parallel, Swiss, the Lufthansa group company that closed its accounts with spectacular profits in 2022 (+476 million euros in operating profit), presented its new First and Business class which it called Senses. Looking in detail, it will be the same type of seat announced by Lufthansa – a way for the group to offer a coherent product – but with some Swiss tweaks to differentiate it from the German carrier.

Finnair’s decision

Further north, the renewal of Finnair’s Business class continues – which began in 2022 – on long-haul flights and which will cost a total of around 200 million euros of investment. The AirLounge seats have a very special design that allows the passenger to have much more space available, the seat reclines completely to transform into a large bed inside what is defined as a real fixed shell.

Seat costs

The restyling of a complex and expensive operation cabin, explain the insiders. It takes between 4 and 6 weeks to install all the seats in a long-haul aircraft, says the Lufthansa spokesman. On prices, on the other hand, the more sensitive issue. According to list prices, a suite can cost a carrier up to 500 thousand euros, a business seat between 80 and 250 thousand euros, while a Premium economy seat between 10 and 20 thousand euros. According to the estimates of Courier for Lufthansa it could be a cost of 150 million euros just for the purchase of the suites, 660 million for the Business, over 400 million for the Premium economy and 120 million for the Economy. Very high costs which, however, the companies are repaid with equally expensive tickets: between 10 and 20 thousand euros per passenger.

High definition monitor

The new cabin product also arrives on board the Airbus A350 of Iberia, the Spanish company of the Iag holding which had to travel with some aircraft without the Business seats due to supply problems from the company that makes the seats. Iberia’s 31 most luxurious seats will have five centimeters more legroom and each have a sliding door, and the central ones, like in Lufthansa’s Prima, can be pushed together for couples. Screens for watching movies will have 4k resolution. More luxury also for Air France Business. In addition to privacy doors and armchairs that become two-metre beds, the 4K screen will be 17.3 inches large. Initially the product will be installed in 12 Boeing 777-300ERs.

The longest flight in the world

All eyes are focused – and here we go very far – on the Airbus A350-1000 of the Australian company Qantas which intends to start the longest connections in the world: from Sydney to London and New York non-stop. The carrier with the kangaroo in the tail presented the interior configuration with 238 seats. There will be six First Class seats (with 32-inch screens, personal wardrobe, custom lights and wireless charger), 52 Business seats, 40 Premium economy seats and 140 Economy seats.

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