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Lufthansa has been awarded Skytrax’s 5-star rating this week. It is the first European airline to receive the rating, bringing the total number of airlines with 5-star status up to 10. The other 9 airlines are ANA, Asiana, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, EVA Air, Garuda Indonesia, Hainan Airlines, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines.

 

Let’s take a look at the rating in closer details:

Lufthansa has held a 5-star rating for its First Class product for sometime, and was named “Best Airline in Europe” earlier this year by Skytrax. Back in 2014, the airline announced its intention to become a fully-fledged 5-star carrier. You can find out more about the requirements and Lufthansa’s performance here.

Let’s have a look at what Skytrax had to say:

“The Certified 5-Star Airline Rating recognises the highest overall quality performance and excellence in ground and inflight product provided by Lufthansa to it’s customers.

A critical factor for an airline to achieve 5-Star Certification is consistency of standards, and this is where Lufthansa ranks highly across their network and different cabin types, with a core feature of the Lufthansa 5-star experience being consistent staff service quality across frontline customer touchpoints.”

Perhaps my assessment of the new Lufthansa business cabin, which will be rolled from 2020 when the airline takes delivery of the Boeing 777-9, as “somewhat unimaginative” was a little harsh. According to Skytrax:

“In long haul Business Class, Lufthansa currently has one of the most consistent fleetwide, long haul flatbed seats. A key factor behind Lufthansa gaining 5-Star Airline Certification is the recently announced new business class cabin and seat that will be delivered when the airline receives their first Boeing 777X aircraft. Short haul business class meets the European standard, based on economy style seating with middle seats left vacant. Lufthansa First Class seat product meets a high standard of personal comfort to customers, and the current product is well rated.”

To be precisely clear, Lufthansa has improved across the board in comparison to its last rating. Lufthansa improved its rating in long-haul economy and long-haul premium economy from 4 to 5 stars, and it’s short-haul business class product has improved from 4 to 4.5 stars. It’s current long-haul business class product has retained its previous 4-star rating, though by the sound of the above, I suspect this will presumably change when the enhancements are introduced early next year (PJ’s, mattresses and duvets) and when the new cabin is rolled out in 2020.

Lufthansa’s ground experience, its lounges and welcome lounge, have received special mention, too:

“On the ground, Lufthansa has continued the roll-out of its new Business and Senator lounge products, which are available with increasing consistency across the network. Customers can already see the refreshed interior décor and furniture in most lounges, and in-lounge dining quality and choices have improved. The “Welcome lounge” facilities in Frankfurt provide one of the best premium arrival experiences in the industry, and the First Class terminal in Frankfurt continues to delight those customers lucky enough to travel at the front end of the aircraft.”

You can read the full Skytrax explanation here.

And here’s an excerpt from Lufthansa’s press release:

“The award is a well-deserved recognition of our major efforts to make Lufthansa one of the world’s leading premium airlines again,” says Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. “We have caught up because we made huge investments in our fleet, updated all our cabins, introduced digital services, opened new lounges and improved service on board and on the ground. The combination of premium offerings with the quality and professionalism of our employees has earned Lufthansa the status of a five-star airline,” Spohr adds. “Everyone at Lufthansa can be proud of this certification, especially our colleagues in the cabins and cockpits and on the ground who fulfil our premium promise every day in their interactions with our passengers. I am convinced that the most important factor in getting the fifth star was that we have the best airline employees.”

Lufthansa has been celebrating on social media, using the hashtag #LH5Star:

Bottom line

Whatever you make of Skytrax and airline ratings, Lufthansa has clearly made investments over the last few years to improve its product across the board at a time when other airlines have opted for cost-cutting “enhancements”. Sure, Lufthansa has cut costs, too, for example by removing hard copy newspapers and magazines–but these can now be accessed online free of charge. I am not sure the short-haul business class hard product offering–basically a free middle seat–really deserves 4.5 stars, but maybe that’s something I have just missed…

Let me know in the comments what you make of this.