Lufthansa may have to fly its new 787s with empty space where the business class seats were meant to be because the seats haven’t met crashworthiness certification yet.
The seats are a Lufthansa-designed class called Allegris, which has gotten a lot of press for its luxury and features, but which requires its own certification, an issue which wouldn’t have arisen if the airline had chosen from business class offerings that have already been certified. The airline has 34 787-9s on order, with 15 ready for delivery other than the issue with the seats. The 787s are intended as replacements for Lufthansa’s remaining 4-engine A340s.
A similar issue arose with the Allegris seats installed on the airline’s new Airbus A350s, which are equipped with Allegris seats in both first class and business, and in fact for a time Lufthansa flew those planes with first class empty while waiting for certification from the FAA’s European equivalent, EASA.
Generally, FAA and EASA follow each other’s testing and certification, but that hasn’t happened in this case because although the seats are of the same design they are made by two different manufacturers. Some in the industry have speculated that the U.S. seats have already failed early crash tests and may need significant re-design.
