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Lufthansa Starts A380 Business-Class Retrofit With Thompson Seats in February

The carrier is using an already certified Vantage XL design to speed entry into service as part of a wider seat renewal across its 747-8 and A350-900 fleets.

Overview

  • Work begins in February 2026 at Elbe Flugzeugwerke in Dresden on A380 D-AIMC (“Mike-Charly”), which Lufthansa expects back in service in April.
  • All eight A380s are slated to be reconfigured by mid-2027.
  • Lufthansa chose Thompson Aero’s Vantage XL instead of its Allegris seats, leveraging existing certification to avoid extra approvals and accelerate deployment.
  • The new business cabin adds direct aisle access, 58 cm seat width, beds of at least two meters, Bluetooth and privacy partitions, while reducing business capacity from 78 to 68 seats.
  • Separately, the airline will replace seats across all classes on its Boeing 747-8s and Airbus A350-900s, describing the effort as its most extensive fleet renewal to date.