AIX 2018: Lufthansa goes with Geven across fleet

By April 11, 2018 April 27th, 2020 Featured, Seating

Swiss Airlines will be the first of Lufthansa Group’s airlines to get a new economy class seat from Italian supplier Geven, as the airline group standardises seating across its continental fleet.

The German airline group selected Geven to equip its fleet of Airbus A320 and A321neos with the new Essenza Economy Class seat as standard across its hub airlines Swiss, Austrian and Lufthansa. The selection of the new seats from Geven is part of a larger cabin design modernisation project that Lufthansa is undergoing as part of its development and growth plan.

The seats will be delivered in 50 ship-sets for each airline, with deliveries to start in the fourth quarter of this year and go on until 2022. The first A320 with the new seats is expected to receive them in the first quarter of 2019, with a total of 93 aircraft to be fitted in either 174-seat or 180-seat layouts.

The 29-inch pitch Essenza seats will be delivered for linefit with different trim and finish variants (Lufthansa, Swiss Airlines, Austrian Airlines). It is the first time that a standardised seat has been selected for equipping aircraft across the group’s different airlines.

“Lufthansa Group is a highly demanding and meticulous customer but also an ideal partner for developing new products and solutions to their passengers worldwide and ultimately to the aviation industry,” said Alberto Veneruso, Geven managing director, at AIX in Hamburg. “Lufthansa Group is well known for paying high attention in the selection of its partners. Since the early stage of the negotiation phase they made several audit activities and required a huge amount of detail and data that have been carefully analysed. For those reasons, to have been selected for such an important project makes Geven extremely proud.”

Paul Estoppey, head of product cabin at Lufthansa Group, said: “The co-operation with Geven went very well. Due to the combination of seat manufacturer know-how and our customer perspective, we have jointly developed a great seat that is both technically and ergonomically state-of-the-art.”

The Essenza seat is 7.9 kg ‘fully dressed’, with the backrest made of single-piece carbon fibre with both structural and aesthetical functions, meaning no additional fairing or plastic shrouds are needed. With only the foam and the cover added, this results in a lower number of parts and lower weight.

An innovative horizontal literature pocket has been designed, leaving a slimmer backrest, leaving more room for passengers.

[Photo: Alberto Veneruso of Geven (centre) and Paul Estoppey of Lufthansa Group (right) at AIX.]

Leave a Reply