2020 will see a new type of business class seat join Lufthansa’s fleet. Last week Lufthansa revealed its brand-new Business Class product that will be available with the roll-out of the Boeing 777-9. The new seat might look familiar, as it shares a lot of similarities with Acumen’s Optima seat design, which can also be found in United’s new Polaris cabin right now.
As a novel improvement to the seat construction, the seat cushioning has been updated with sleep in mind. The construction of the back rest makes it possible for the shoulder to sink in when you are lying on the side. This keeps the spine straight and makes it possible for side sleepers to also benefit from ideally healthy and relaxing sleep.
“The new, ultra-modern Lufthansa Business Class creates a new global benchmark. It offers our passengers a unique travel experience,” says Harry Hohmeister, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. “We have consistently and continuously refined our range of premium products for our guests and modernized Lufthansa. Our focus is and has always been on the wishes of our customers and their specific needs. We want to provide them with the perfect travel experience. The new Business Class showcases the full innovative capacity of Lufthansa.”
Compared to its predecessors, the Boeing 777-9 has a considerably wider cabin, yet the configuration actually matches the 2 x 3 x 2 found in some 777 business class cabins. However, due to the staggered configuration, Business class passengers will now have direct access to the aisle, made possible by a repeating 1-2-1 and 1-1-1 seat configuration.
The airline is pushing customer personalisation as a unique sales tool, however, they are truly reflecting the fact that the seats actually offer slightly different passenger space and bed lengths. “Depending on their personal needs, passengers can choose between a number of spatial configurations. For instance, they can choose to have an extended-length bed or a seat with twice as much desk space. Lufthansa’s new high-end Business Class offers business and leisure travellers an incomparably luxurious, healthy and relaxing flight experience,” states the press release.
All the functions of the seat as well as the in-flight entertainment system can be controlled using the passenger’s personal device (a bit like Singapore Airlines new system.) Smartphones and tablets can also be recharged at the seat using wireless technology. And in the future, anyone who wants to watch one of the movies from the extensive entertainment program will experience the blockbusters on much larger screens, in full HD.
2020 might be a while to wait, but the good news is that there will be some innovations in the existing Business Class in the upcoming year to significantly improve the comfort level for passengers. Mattresses that have been developed exclusively for Lufthansa will be provided on long intercontinental flights as of early 2018. On request, passengers will also be provided with sleeping sweaters. So far, these have only been available in First Class. Lufthansa will also be offering its Business Class passengers new blankets.
TheDesignAir 
welcome to 2007 Lufthansa! It is beyond me how they decided business class passengers wanted to play footsies and hop/be hopped over in the middle of the night when they rolled out the last seat. makes you wonder if all those focus groups are worth the effort.