Lufthansa reveals new European seating with more capacity and legroom

Lufthansa has finally revealed the cabin revamp for its short and medium-haul fleet. The European cabin upgrade involves some 32,000 new seats installed on over 180 aircraft, and provides passengers with more legroom while increasing the capacity of Lufthansa’s fleet and reducing weight. 

This is possible due to new, slimmer seats designed by Recaro. As the newly designed seats take up less room than the previous seats, up to two additional rows of seats can be installed on each aircraft. Lufthansa will thus be able to offer about 2,000 additional seats, which is equivalent to the capacity of twelve Airbus A320s. 

What’s interesting in the seat design is that while the actual footprint of the new seats may be smaller and closer to the seat in front of it, the way that the space is utilised is what allows the increase in legroom and capacity. For example, rather than having bulky magazine pockets at knee level, these pockets have been raised and now knee room is increased by 4cm. 

Similarly, making the seat shell and upholstery thinner allows for a greater sense of space in front of you without actually taking up more room on the aircraft, an approach that we saw taken earlier by UK design firm Acro. In effect, Lufthansa is making its fleet more efficient on a per-passenger basis while improving comfort. 

The new seats will also be introduced into the rest of the Lufthansa family, which means that Austrian Airlines, SWISS, and bmi will also be using the more roomy seats. 

Lufthansa has also been showing off its upgraded inflight service - now, passengers travelling in economy class even on short, domestic routes will be offered snacks like muesli bars and chocolates. On cross-border European services with a flight time of more than two hours, they will be offered a hot meal. The in-flight menus will be designed by renowned chefs - for the launch, Lufthansa has tapped famed German chef, Heiko Antoniewicz, to create a fresh new menu for the airline. 

Check out our gallery of Lufthansa’s new European product here.