Lufthansa is looking at a compromise by which it could this summer fly some of the Boeing 787s it is yet to receive because of delays in certification of its business-class seat.
The group’s long-haul fleet renewal and roll-out of its new Allegris in-flight product has been hard hit by wide-ranging manufacturing and certification delays.
“The fundamental bottlenecks of the manufacturers in our industry have stayed with us over the past year and they will probably continue to affect until the end of the decade,” said Lufthansa Group chief executive Carsten Spohr, speaking during a full-year results briefing on 6 March.
Specifically, he points to 41 Boeing long-haul aircraft which were due to be operational at Lufthansa Group by 2024. That includes 15 787 Dreamliners which are still awaiting certification of business-class seats.
However, Spohr says he is “carefully optimistic” that the airline will be able to deploy some of these 787s this summer.
“If we now find a compromise that we can bring these airplanes into service and just need a few of the business class seats to be blocked as these are the only seats awaiting certification, it would make sense for us to fly these aircraft, train our pilots and ramp up to eventually get certification for all seats,” he says.
“So there might be airplanes flying as early as this summer with some of the business-class seats blocked, but all other compartments and some of the business seats are certified.”
He says overall the group expects to take delivery of 26 aircraft over the course of the year.
