Budget Airline Eurowings Unveils Lie-Flat Business Class

Here's an interesting development in the aviation world: Eurowings, the low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa, has announced its new business class, possibly making it the first budget airline in Europe to offer fully lie flat seats.

Eurowings posted a picture of its new product, which looks exactly like Lufthansa's business class, except in a different color scheme.

BIZclass, as Eurowings has dubbed the seats, will go into service by the end of April 2018 on selected long-haul flights. The airline will debut the product in person at ITB Berlin, an airline trade show, in March 2018. Eurowings operates seven A330s, one 767 and will also get six A340s from its parent company, although its unclear what aircraft will get the new seats.

Eurowings is a subsidiary of Lufthansa so it makes sense that they'd install the same seats that Lufthansa uses for its business class, although it's a bit odd that they are doing a whole reveal as some on Twitter pointed out.

Here's Lufthansa's business class for comparison:

A Eurowings press release said they are the first budget carrier to offer fully flat seats, which is incorrect. Both Malaysia-based AirAsia X and Brazilian LCC Azul offer flat bed seats on their A330s. What's more likely is that Eurowings is the first budget carrier in Europe to offer lie flat seats — Norwegian and WOW both have recliner seats as their "business" products. Some would argue that's not even true, as the now defunct AirBerlin had flat bed seat. Whether or not it was actually a budget carrier is up for debate.

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Eurowings flies from Germany to six US destinations seasonally, including Fort Myers (RSW), Las Vegas (LAS), Miami (MIA), New York (JFK), Orlando (MCO) and Seattle (SEA). You can redeem United miles on the carrier since it's part of Star Alliance as a Lufthansa subsidiary. That said I couldn't find any award availability on any Eurowings flights from the US to Germany, just intra-European routes like Dusseldorf (DUS) to London (LHR).

The airline said it will keep its existing booking classes of Basic, Smart and Best (premium economy) in addition to its new business class. Business class will also offer "special catering and a few other new services."