New look for Lufthansa lounges, starting at Newark

Lufthansa has a stylish lounge concept on the way, and it’ll debut at the airline’s all-new lounge at Newark in July.

Showpiece touches will include a classic horseshoe-shaped bar, private meeting rooms and, for first class flyers, “an exclusive à la carte dining room,” says Lufthansa Chief Commercial Officer Heiko Reitz.

Concept images of Lufthansa's new lounge at Newark.

“We will also have different zones in the lounges,” Reitz told Executive Traveller on the sidelines of Lufthansa’s A350 Allegris launch at Munich, including “a relaxation area, meeting rooms and a very stylish cool bar.”

Concept images of Lufthansa's new lounge at Newark.

Concept images reveal a dramatically different look for Lufthansa, moving away from a long-standing ‘clinical’ palette to embrace a warmer contemporary vibe using materials such as  timber and brick.

Concept images of Lufthansa's new lounge at Newark.

Reitz says the airline’s new lounge design was developed similarly to its Allegris suites and seats, through “intense co-creation activities with our customers.”

“We went with them through the entire process, asking how you feel, what you think, what is your mindset when you enter a lounge? What are your needs and how can we fulfil them?”

Concept images of Lufthansa's new lounge at Newark.

“How can we actually surprise you, how can we exceed this? And this led to a complete rethinking about our lounges.”

The Newark lounge will be followed by similar projects in Washington DC and New York JFK, where Lufthansa will launch the new lounge in conjunction with its move to Terminal 6 –  “and it's going to be one of a kind.”

Concept images of Lufthansa's new lounge at Newark.

However, none of these lounges will be quite the same.

“We will go destination by destination,” Reitz explains, asking each time “what kind of passenger needs do we see? There will be different areas and ideas.”

Concept images of Lufthansa's new lounge at Newark.

That will particularly apply when Lufthansa’s next-gen lounge concept eventually takes root at its ‘home hubs’ in Frankfurt and Munich.

“We have many lounges in our (hub) airports,” Reitz says, “so are developing new lounge concepts for the entire hub system… we are looking into every single lounge and how can we actually have different types of lounges, create different atmospheres? We’re going through this process right now.”

David Flynn travelled to Munich as a guest of Lufthansa.