Question: how long do you think an A320 would need to sit on the ground for a full economy/Eurobusiness refit? Did you answer “eight months”?
Us neither.
So why did the airplane not move from last June until last month?
That, and more, in this week’s Update:
theupfront.media/update-34-84...
Airlines have a one-size-fits-all approach to passenger assistance, and it sucks.
It also saves airlines a ton of money because they outsource the responsibility and then stop caring.
A strong piece from @thatjohn.bsky.social @theupfront.media on the issue: theupfront.media/disabled-pas...
The other odd part is that there are DB high-speed trains between Cologne and Frankfurt Airport every ten minutes or so, taking as little as 47 minutes.
Two trains a day — taking more than twice as long — from Cologne to Brussels Airport is quite a different prospect.
Satellite view of BRU, noting to get to the airport rail station you have to go: along the concourse, through the over-retailing slalom, into another building, change level for passport control bedlam, into another building for baggage claim, and down to the underground station. For plane-to-plane, it’s a short hop along the concourse
The problem: BRU is a dozen buildings lumped next to each other in trenchcoat.
Also, Brussels Airlines + Lufthansa Group operates so neatly along its own mostly dedicated and very efficient pier.
Getting in and out of that pier, by contrast, is weirdly quite the faff.
Brussels Airlines is now doing codeshare rail with Deutsche Bahn from BRU to Cologne (+Aachen + Liège).
This is great, but to note:
1) it’s only two daily trains
2) Brussels is *great* as a plane-to-plane transfer airport (one of Europe’s best!), but terrible as an origin and destination airport
Four months ago, apparently…
The A350-1000 does also appear in the German version, for those of us who are currently wary of Lufthansa PR’s command of detail, particularly in English.
As usual, we’ll wait to see if it’s corrected in the Lufthansa *Americas* version of the release, which usually follows about 6 hours later.
Lufthansa 100th anniversary livery A380: mostly dark blue, with a white crane at the wings, emerging from a hangar
Lufthansa 100th anniversary livery A380: mostly dark blue, with a white crane at the wings, landing
Lufthansa 100th anniversary livery A380: mostly dark blue, with a white crane at the wings, on approach to land
Screenshot text: A Boeing 747-8 and an Airbus A350-1000 will follow in the coming weeks. A total of seven special liveries will then be in service to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first “Luft Hansa”. The aircraft will receive the special design either as part of a regular repainting program or, in the case of new deliveries, as their initial paint job at the factory. This means that there will be only minimal additional costs for this special fleet appearance in Lufthansa's anniversary year.
The latest of Lufthansa’s gorgeous 100th anniversary blue crane liveries is out, on the A380 — and looks great.
Lufthansa also promises an A350-1000 with the livery soon. Not sure where that’s coming from, since Lufthansa’s first -1000 isn’t due for delivery until 2028.
Okay SUDDEN BONUS SUBSCRIPTION OFFER, #aviation people!
Use code "PCOTTIEST" at signup to get 20% off a Business subscription to the Up Front.
In honour of some truly terrible AI Crystal Cabin submissions and so you can read @thatjohn.bsky.social's descent into madness reviewing them.
![Text, in italics:
Editor’s note: The Up Front will not analyse this submission because it comprises in its entirety slides with generative AI slop images, nonsensical backwards graphs, and Comic Sans text, which even managed to misspell its airline’s name in one place.
A lowlight is the slide where the seatback AI sludge text includes “20% OFF is Hight Pcottiest” and “Onft:Offer” [both sic].
Hard questions should be asked about whether it should been disqualified before even being shortlisted, let alone reaching the finals in a genuinely competitive category.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:6neozl3pgi7pn2byzjvggpas/bafkreibskziybfs34k54t42vdr7vb5oshgdlwxurfr6blrhheeh7e3ljoe@jpeg)
Text, in italics: Editor’s note: The Up Front will not analyse this submission because it comprises in its entirety slides with generative AI slop images, nonsensical backwards graphs, and Comic Sans text, which even managed to misspell its airline’s name in one place. A lowlight is the slide where the seatback AI sludge text includes “20% OFF is Hight Pcottiest” and “Onft:Offer” [both sic]. Hard questions should be asked about whether it should been disqualified before even being shortlisted, let alone reaching the finals in a genuinely competitive category.
But for one of the finalists, the only conclusion we can draw is this.
Text, in italics: Editor’s note: The Up Front will not analyse this submission because it comprises in its entirety slides with generative AI slop images, nonsensical backwards graphs, and Comic Sans text, which even managed to misspell its airline’s name in one place. A lowlight is the slide where the seatback AI sludge text includes “20% OFF is Hight Pcottiest” and “Onft:Offer” [both sic]. Hard questions should be asked about whether it should been disqualified before even being shortlisted, let alone reaching the finals in a genuinely competitive category.
But for one of the finalists, the only conclusion we can draw is this.
For each of the 24 finalists, we’ve analysed:
• what each one is
• where it is on the scale of blue-sky-idea to flying
• how innovative it is.
There are some genuinely incredible entries this year. But beyond the AI slop, there are also some problems with categorisation and definitions too.
A hand, handing a small translucent white plastic box to someone else. That person’s left hand has weird extra fingers.
An obviously AI-generated image inside a clearly fake airline cabin. A ghostly blue figure dressed like a doctor stands with a floating screen with heart readings.
An obviously AI-generated image inside a clearly fake airline cabin. A ghostly blue figure dressed like a doctor is on the left with a floating screen with heart readings. On the right, a woman dressed like a stewardess stares into the middle distance while
Cards on the table: the Crystal Cabins are important for aviation and for the passenger experience.
One of our first calls when launching The Up Front was to the team to become a media partner, to cover them better.
This AI sludge getting through to the finals really does matter.
Closeup of an obviously AI-generated slide, with a seatback that includes the phrases “20% OFF is Hight Pcottiest” and “Onft:Offer”.
Crop of same slide, with nonsensical right-hand with reversed axes, blurry sludge labels, right-to-left arrow, and no measurement, which says “NSAT Improvement It’s Measurable w/CoP”.
“20% OFF is Hight Pcottiest”. “Onft:Offer”. AI sludge text, fake charts, nonexistent holograms.
The Crystal Cabin Awards — the Oscars of the passenger experience world — has two finalists whose entries are riddled with gen AI slop.
theupfront.media/the-up-front...
A man sits in a window seat of the A380 mockup, looking cramped. He holds a coffee cup and saucer in one hand. I say holds. It looks sort of like he’s throwing caffeinated gang signs, with his index finger in the handle, and the others under the saucer.
It’s an understatement to say that a lot has happened in the ten-plus years since @thatjohn.bsky.social took this photo of @airlineflyer.net in the 3-5-3 mockup of the A380 at the Aircraft Interiors Expo.
But a whole lot of it leads to the A350 NPS cabin.
theupfront.media/airbus-a350-...
A 9-abreast A350 cabin.
A 10-abreast A350 cabin.
A long thin galley with two lavs on the outboard of the flight attendant seats.
A wider galley with more space and no lavs.
We go back more than a decade, and travel to Airbus’ secret cabin mockup in Toulouse, to explain why these seats, these galleys and these cabins all contribute to NPS.
NPS isn’t just about cabins: it’s a change to how Airbus goes about the very process of making and improving on its airplanes.
A seat on a mockup, from above. There is a tiny armrest jutting out at an angle, and the sidewall curves in underneath the seat pan, blocking off about a quarter of the foot space.
Closeup on the seat pan, and how the sidewall cuts in underneath it at an angle.
The full mockup of two rows of A380 3-5-3 seats, each from a different seatmaker.
These aren’t photos of Airbus’ NPS A350 ten-abreast economy — an extra seat in every row.
They’re photos of the last time Airbus tried to densify a popular widebody, the A380.
The end of the A380, 777X delays, the #PaxEx Overton Window shift of this A380 mockup… it’s all part of the NPS story.
Airbus’ New Production Standard for the A350 isn’t just about getting 30 more seats on today’s widebodies — though that’s a definite benefit if you’re an airline.
NPS is also about new front cabin options, competing with Boeing’s 777X, and enabling the economics of a future A350-2000 stretch.
FICE/Allegris/Swiss Senses reading list, Part 4: how these seats — and the others that Lufthansa is taking — fit into the wider strategy Lufthansa is pursuing.
theupfront.media/a-coda-for-a...
FICE/Allegris/Swiss Senses reading list, Part 3: the "Project Fox" service and soft product interlude:
theupfront.media/what-the-fox...
FICE/Allegris/Swiss Senses reading list, Part 2:
theupfront.media/pro-readout-...
Need to read up on what all this means?
Here's a reading list on the Lufthansa and Swiss seats that are called FICE at Lufthansa Group level, Allegris by Lufthansa, and Swiss Senses by Swiss — and yes, this in and of itself is bonkers.
Part 1: theupfront.media/pro-readout-...
Same image again: Closeup on the overhead cabin rendering, with several seats marked as A, B, AA, BB, C and CC.
By the same logic, seats C and CC should be identical except for being mirrored. Again, *if it is a seat attachment issueª it is very strange that the FAA should approve C but not CC.
Same image: Closeup on the overhead cabin rendering, with several seats marked as A, B, AA, BB, C and CC.
Moreover, the A+B and AA+BB assemblies — they are essentially one unit for two seats — should be identical in every respect.
Again, *if it is indeed a fuselage attachment issue as Spohr said*, it is very strange to me that the FAA says that seat A is safe to occupy but AA is not.
Closeup on the overhead cabin rendering, with several seats marked as A, B, AA, BB, C and CC.
What's also baffling — based on Spohr pointing to a "fuselage attachment" issue on 6 Feb — is why it's the second row of seats that can't be used.
That's A and C here. But if it's a fuselage attachment issue, it is very strange to me that the FAA says that B is safe to occupy but A is not.
Overhead render view of the staggered Optima seat, where aisle-adjacent seats are slightly staggered towards the aisle.
A view of the slightly angled version of the United Polaris version of Optima.
An overhead view of Allegris: the key differences are the studio class suites in the front and only one middle seat in each row
Closeup realworld shot of the aisle-adjacent Allegris seat
Allegris is not materially different from (indeed is based on the same designer IP as) the Zodiac/Safran Ultima seat from 2016.
That first flew as United Polaris — except that Allegris (not manufactured by Safran, mind) is less dense, less attractive, and has a front row studio class seat.
We remain absolutely baffled as to how it has taken Lufthansa this long, with this much trouble, to secure certification of FICE/Allegris/Swiss — a seat that is neither:
• innovative
• novel
• dense
• complicated
• on a new aircraft
• from a startup seatmaker
Why the second row? Lufthansa isn't talking, but we delved into the reasons why new flagship business seat has been so delayed on the 787 in last week's Update…
…and it is notable that the "only a few days" promised on 6 Feb turned into a full ten days.
theupfront.media/update-33-ai...
A man is on his phone in a Lufthansa Allegris aisle-side seat
Lufthansa can now seat passengers 25 out of 28 seats in its Allegris business class cabins on its 787s — up from just 4 — now that all but three in the second row are FINALLY certified by the FAA.
OUT NOW and free to read thanks to our incredible subscribers: why Philippine Airlines' new A350-1000 cabins are ones to watch, and not just because they're the first carrier to take ten-abreast economy in A350 NPS.
theupfront.media/pal-raises-t...
