Lufthansa’s profitability on Boeing 787 flights is now set to normalise. The airline can market 25 of its 28 Allegris business‑class seats and has opened bookings on these seats for flights starting 15 April. Only three seats, those in the second row, are still awaiting certification to be put on sale.
Lufthansa introduced its first 787‑9 in October 2025 and now has eight of the type in service. However, certification of the business‑class seats by the FAA has been significantly delayed, due both to the complexity of the cabin layout and to heightened scrutiny by the US agency following Boeing’s difficulties with the 737 MAX. Until now, Lufthansa could not market its business class, except for four seats in the front row, and has been flying the cabins almost empty.
In business class, Allegris relies on several different seat configurations: suites with sliding doors, extra‑long beds, “throne”‑style seats, and pairs of seats, to which are added the usual complexities of premium‑cabin products (sliding panels, shells). This layout requires safety testing (crashworthiness, head‑impact, flammability, evacuation, etc.) and validation of each variant separately, which takes more time than a simpler configuration with a single seat model and design throughout the cabin.
But “after passing additional important milestones in the certification process over the past few weeks, nothing now stands in the way of the approval of the Allegris business class on the Boeing 787‑9, except for three seats located in the second row of the cabin,” Lufthansa said in a statement.
Passengers will be able to travel on 787‑9s with Allegris from Frankfurt to Austin, Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá, Cape Town, Shanghai, Hyderabad, Hong Kong, and then to New York JFK and Los Angeles from June, and to Delhi from July. They will then be able to choose a “standard” business‑class seat or, for an extra charge, a solo window seat, a seat with more space, or a seat with a longer bed, among other options.
Lufthansa has taken delivery of eight of the 787‑9s it has ordered and expects to receive a further 21 aircraft by the end of 2027.
