The introduction of Lufthansa’s new Allegris cabin concept hasn’t been without drama, to put it mildly. Over the past several months, Lufthansa’s biggest issue has been with its new Boeing 787s, as the airline has struggled to get its new business class seats certified.
In October 2025, we saw the new Dreamliners enter commercial service, though with most business class seats blocked. Lufthansa has been trying to get these seats certified ASAP, and while the airline was expecting they would be certified soon, there’s now a big, positive update!
Most of Lufthansa’s new 787 Allegris business class seats are now officially certified, and are available for flights effective immediately. Let’s cover all the details, including some background. This is huge news for the airline.
Lufthansa’s 787 business class seat certification issues
In 2024, we saw Lufthansa introduce its new Allegris concept, with the most exciting development being the debut of the new Allegris business class, finally offering direct aisle access from all seats.
This product was launched on the Airbus A350-900, but that wasn’t without its challenges. First there were supply chain issues with getting the new seats. But even when the new business class, premium economy, and economy, were ready to go, the new first class wasn’t. So Lufthansa started flying these planes with the space of the first class cabin empty. Fortunately that has since been resolved, and the new first class has been in service for some time.
However, for much of 2025, Lufthansa was facing a much bigger issue with its Boeing 787s, which also feature the new Allegris cabins (though without first class). Lufthansa currently has 10 brand new Dreamliners, with 19 more expected to be delivered by the end of 2027. The catch is that up until now, most of the business class seats on these planes couldn’t be occupied.
What was the issue? Well, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) didn’t certify some of the new business class seats. You might be thinking “wait, aren’t these the same seats as on the A350?” Sort of. Lufthansa’s Allegris business class seats are actually produced by three different seating manufacturers (yeah… don’t ask), and certification is required for each seat type on each aircraft type. Initially, only one of those three types of seats had been certified on the 787.
25 of 28 business class seats can finally be occupied
In October 2025, Lufthansa began flying its new Boeing 787s, though only four of the 28 business class seats could be occupied up until now. Since Lufthansa has so many different seating types in Allegris, what’s going on here is that only the business class suites in the first row were initially certified, while all the other seat types weren’t.
So there’s now a positive development — many additional seats are now certified, so Lufthansa is able to sell 25 of its 28 Allegris business class seats on the 787 for flights effective immediately. Interestingly, the three seats that aren’t bookable for the time being are all in row two.
For what it’s worth, the Dreamliner with the registration code D-ABPM operated the first flight with 25 of the 28 seats for sale, on March 15. For the remainder of the winter season (through late March 2026), the planes will fly from Frankfurt (FRA) to Austin (AUS), Bogota (BOG), Hyderabad (HYD), Mumbai (BOM), Rio de Janeiro (GIG), and Toronto (YYZ). Then for the start of the summer season (as of late March 2026), we’ll also see them fly to Cape Town (CPT), Hong Kong (HKG), and Shanghai (PVG).
Bottom line
Lufthansa has had serious issues with getting its new Boeing 787s into service, due to lack of certification with the new business class seats. The airline already has 10 of these new Dreamliners, but up until recently, only four of the 28 business class seats have been on sale.
So there’s finally some good news, as Lufthansa has managed to get 25 of the 28 business class seats certified, and they’re for sale for flights effective immediately. This is fantastic, and it’s good for both the company any for passengers.
This Allegris rollout really hasn’t been very smooth, to put it mildly. First the airline had to fly A350s with the space of the first class cabin empty. Then Lufthansa parked brand new 787s for many months due to not getting the seats certified. Never mind that SWISS has introduced the same product, and will have to install a 1.5 ton weight in the back of A330s, because first class is too heavy.
What do you make of Lufthansa’s Dreamliner certification milestone?