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Did I ever mention that I graduated Yale? I could at least pretend as much sitting inside The Yale Club of New York City for my sit-down with Nils Haupt, Lufthansa Airlines Director and Head of Corporate Communications, The Americas. Nils is sharply dressed for the occasion as we settle into our vintage leather, button-tufted seats for some Lufthansa Q&A. Read on as we talk about Lufthansa’s new Business and First Class cabins and what one thing Nils would most like to see return to air travel.
At the very beginning of our conversation I asked about the airline adding true Premium Economy seating and he let us know that it’s still on track to be introduced aboard A380 aircraft this Summer (2014). We also touched on the overall experience in economy and he eluded to upcoming changes for passengers in the back of the plane including, but not limited to, better food. Here’s a quick look at my recent experience in an extra legroom seat (sort of) aboard a Lufthansa A340-300.
Becoming a higher rated airline with those of us who rate them seems like a priority in all classes, but our Q an A begins with a transformation that’s already begun, Business Class.
Jake: This switch to the lie-flat seats in business is well underway. How complete exactly?
Nils: Actually we have obviously the very new 747-800 coming out of production. They’re all equipped with the new business class. We have just started the introduction of the new business class first of June 2012 with our inaugural flight with the 747 (800) to Washington.
I would say approximately 15% of our long haul fleet is now equipped with the new business class and we hope that at the end of 2014 we will be like 60% but you shouldn’t underestimate. It is a very long lasting process, so you have to take out an aircraft out of the production for several weeks. It’s not as easy as replacing economy classes with premium economy. That’s much easier because you really need to change the entire cable system, the entire wiring. We are talking about really difficult stuff here.
Jake: (So,) There are some challenges there.
Nils: There are some challenges. When we introduce new premium economy class end of this year, obviously we would need the differentiation between business class and premium economy, so we want to speed up the process now so that we clearly have a full differentiation between first and business, business and premium economy, premium economy and economy.
Jake: What’s been the response so far of the new business class seats?
Nils: Admittedly, we have been very late with the introduction of lie-flat, so we were a bit behind. I very clearly state that. Now as we introduced it, people love the new aircraft. It’s not only about the new business class seats, it’s also less noise in the aircraft, it’s more humidity in the new aircraft and all this new stuff we have on board of this new aircraft and of course it wouldn’t surprise anybody that customers who were many years used to the old business class of Lufthansa that they praise us a lot for now having a lie-flat seat.
Jake: What would you say are the biggest advantages of these seats over what’s offered by say your closest competitors?
Nils: Actually we have these new seats we have introduced with 747-800 with a V-shape. It’s not a cabin. Some carriers believe in the cabins. We don’t believe in the cabins so that you’re isolated from other passengers, but with this V-shape, we have very good experiences, so the angle of the TV, that’s what the people like. You still have some connection to the walkway?
Jake: The aisle, yes.
Nils: To the aisle, but so you are a bit turned away from the aisle so that you don’t see everything, what’s going on. You don’t need to see every passing passenger or all the flight attendants.
Jake: There’s some seclusion.
Nils: Yes, there is some seclusion. Of course with the new entertainment system people are very satisfied and we combined it also with an upgrade of the business class food.
We have invested from the first of May last year started an upgrade in the business class with the food and also with amenities in the bathrooms, which has been highly praised.
Jake: …. what are the key advantages of the newest first class seats?
Nils: At the moment we still have two different products. We have the bed and the seat; this is let’s say an interim solution until we have the very new first class.
Jake: Has that been introduced at all, the very new first class?
Nils: Yes that was with the 747-800 in Washington. We had the very new three products of Lufthansa so this is kind of our role model so new economy, new business and new first class. The very first class is with less noise, the A380 and 747-8, the special curtains. We have the special carpets. We have the noise reduction at the fuselage of the aircraft or less noise from the exterior as well.
Jake: Better insulated, yes.
Nils: It’s better insulated. We have the premium food. We have the premium wine selection. We have the bedding with the blanket and extra bedding, which is put on the bed or on the seat so that you have a very soft sleep, and yes, well that’s actually it.
Jake: How many seats are in a typical first class cabin?
Nils: Always eight.
Jake: It’s always eight, okay.
Nils: Yes, always eight. In each and every aircraft it’s eight.
Jake: … now I know Lufthansa continues to invest in its airport lounges. I know that they’ve made it a key focus. What kind of changes will we see in the lounge experience in 2014?
Nils: Actually Lufthansa currently is investing 36 billion euro in new aircraft. We are investing 1.5 billion euro in new seats and we are investing approximately 500 million euro in the upgrade of our lounges. I think Newark is a good example where we invested $3 million in two new lounges for our senator and our business class customers where you can see first it’s a very synchronized concept when it comes to the color and to the offer of food and drinks.
We got the feedback from SkyTrax that we could also upgrade our food offer in business class. This is something coming up, so that it’s more than potato salad or that could be a bit more distinction for the class.
Jake: In the business class lounge?
Nils: Yes, in the lounges that we in our lounges could upgrade a bit, so that’s something where we look on, and of course we have our first class terminal, which is still unique in the industry where in Frankfurt we have the cigar lounge. We have the biggest whiskey selection in Europe. We have the transportation from the lounge directly to the aircraft in a Porsche or in a Mercedes so customers don’t need to take care of anything.
They enter the lounge. We have passport control there. We have security control when you enter the lounge, so no more security hassle, no more lining up, and then you have your personal assistant and when your flight is ready your personal assistant asks you to go toward the car, the limousine service and you are taken to the aircraft. This is a service we have in Frankfurt. We can’t offer it unfortunately in all other airports of the world because Frankfurt is our hub and Lufthansa is co-owner of the airport.
Jake: Makes it a lot easier I’m sure.
Nils: Makes it a bit easier.
Jake: There are no plans to expand something …
Nils: No and Los Angeles is a very good example where we teamed up with the Star Alliance carriers and we have a beautiful Star Alliance lounge in now in the Tom Bradley terminal, which is highly prices and which is really a very good example of teaming up with other carriers. Would it make sense for one flight a day, let’s say Atlanta or where we just have one flight a day and you have eight first class passengers and like 90 business class customers. Would it make sense to run a business class and first class lounge just on your own? Sometimes it really makes sense to team up with your partners.
Jake: Yes, especially in that instance of course.
Nils: Yes, and I think there is still a lot of differentiations with some lounge concepts of our U.S. competitors, to say it very polite.
Jake: If cost weren’t an issue, wouldn’t that be great? What’s one thing that you would either bring back or introduce as a service or an amenity to the passengers?
Nils: What I would like to bring back, and actually it could be easy to bring back is that flying is an experience again you would like to repeat. The feeling you very often hear from customers or you hear from, especially here in the U.S., without blaming the U.S., because we have the same issues in Europe is like, “Oh, that was like cattle. It’s like cattle transport. Nobody is really taking care,” so that this feeling of it’s not a travel, it’s transport, and this feeling of I dress up because today I fly and I love the experience on the ground as well as in the sky, that we bring back this feeling.
There are many claims in this world like the JetBlue claim or the new and old United Plane flying the friendly skies. Today in the era of mass transportation, I think it’s on us and on passengers as well to bring this feeling back. It could be easy but costs are involved. The average profit particularly in the entire global system is $5.94, not on economy, on the entire system, so each passenger brings a profit of $5.94, so if you just add a cotton towel or a roll or a sausage your profit is gone. This is a low margin industry.
It has changed in the U.S. Lucky U.S. carriers they are really profitable again due to many different factors, but in Europe we still have a hard time. I would love to see this feeling getting back, “Oh, well, I’m flying today. I will have a great time.”
Jake: Do you feel things like the premium economy product will do that? Or some of these things that also provide ancillary revenue for the airlines, those services can bring that back for its passengers or bringing them back to the things that they want when they fly?
Nils: I think we have to be very honest. When people today complain about the economy class and about premium economy class, just try to go back 40 years. How was travel? Travel was not a convenience. People dressed up and people liked it but it was loud, it took much more time, the seats weren’t comfortable at all. The food … I don’t know. Perhaps the food was a bit better but it was a luxury to travel, and people they just accepted that it was loud, it was not very convenient, the seats were not very comfortable, so the first class of 20 or 30 years ago, today you can just sell as a business class.
Really the products have been upgraded heavily but people are spoilt. Of course if you take a cruise, if you’re with … the cars are much more comfortable but the airlines really had to cope with the fact that, just an example, 15 years ago take a ticket price within the U.S. 15 years ago and look at it today. The price and taking inflation into account, the price of the ticket has gone up like 10%.
In the same time in 15 years, fuel prices have gone up 200%. How do you deal with that as an airline if your revenues go up 10% and your main cost goes up 200%? How can you still upgrade a product? How can passengers expect that airlines invest in a lot of money to make flying more comfortable and to make it more luxury? We can’t because it’s a dream to say leave costs aside, but the cost issue is a major issue these days.
Modhop Host & Founder Jake Redman brings years of global exploration and travel tips to the podcast and our videos at Modhop. Jake is also a Producer and Host for SiriusXM.
Review of: Reviewed by: Jake RedmanRating:2On January 20, 2014Last modified:January 20, 2014Summary:More DetailsAirline: KLM Aircraft: Boeing 747-400 Combi Seat maps: SeatGuru | Seat Expert | KLM Seat Info: Seat 14D and Seat 14E Class: Economy Comfort (Extra Legroom) {{orbitz2}} […]
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