Lufthansa's planned use of lighter seating on its European fleet will provide an increase in capacity equivalent to a dozen Airbus A320s.
The German flag-carrier's deputy chairman, Christoph Franz, says the 'Neue Europa Kabine' concept will enable the carrier to add 5-10% more seats, depending on aircraft type.
Franz says the reconfiguration would add "more or less, without the purchase of additional aircraft, the equivalent of around 12 A320s".
"Basically, 12 A320s for free," he says.
The new cabin for the mainline European flights is "one of the major parts" of the Lufthansa restructuring programme, Climb 2011, Franz told investors last week.
"We will start to refurbish the cabin in December," he says, adding that the project will take about a year to complete.
"We'll have not only a very nice new cabin, with lighter seats, but also with more seats available for the same living space for customers."
Franz stresses that the increased capacity does not "take anything away" from passengers but will "lower unit costs on the European fleet quite substantially".
 |
|---|
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
