Ahead of its 100th anniversary next year, Lufthansa is pulling back the curtain on an ambitious overhaul of its onboard experience. The airline’s new “Project FOX” (Future Onboard Experience) aims to reset expectations across all cabins, not just the new Allegris seats, starting in spring 2026.
Inside Lufthansa’s Project FOX: What It Means For Passengers
Project FOX is Lufthansa’s vision for a reimagined passenger experience. Beyond (very slowly) deploying new aircraft or new seats, FOX promises a soft-product transformation: new service concepts, more flexibility, upgraded amenities, and signature touches that reinforce Lufthansa’s “premium positioning.” Lufthansa says it will invest over €70 million in the next year alone toward this initiative, focusing on three pillars: individuality, comfort, and signature moments.
Sound vague? Here’s what we know so far, directly from Lufthansa:
Individuality: passengers have more opportunities to shape their own flight experience. This is particularly evident in Business Class: with FOX, guests will be able to choose their second meal flexibly in future – exactly when it suits them. This concept offers a varied selection of savory and sweet dishes, snacks and hot meals. But the experience in Economy and Premium Economy Class will also become more individual: in future, guests will be able to choose from three meal options instead of two.
Comfort: Lufthansa will place even more priority on premium. High-quality amenities, upgraded textiles – and completely new tableware in all four classes. Modern and timeless at the same time. Because this is more than just functional: it is pleasant to hold, conveys value and underlines the premium experience on board.
Lufthansa Signature Moments: FOX also stands for special and unforgettable moments that only Lufthansa can create. The rose and the unique caviar service in First Class or the Avionic as a signature drink are unique selling points and examples of Lufthansa’s unmistakable signature. FOX picks up on these iconic service elements and further enhances the quality of the travel experience. When it comes to cuisine, a triad of home, variety and Lufthansa signature dishes can be tangibly experienced. Passengers can immerse themselves in different worlds of pleasure created by top chefs. Sometimes with a focus on the destination, sometimes inspired by the place of departure – always combined with a touch of anticipation.
Lufthansa plans to begin testing FOX on a few U.S. routes starting in 2025, before scaling up across its long-haul network by 2026. Internal feedback and customer trials are already shaping prototypes and service concepts (almost 200 Lufthansa employees and 2,000 Lufthansa customers have been involved in Project FOX, and we will see trial routes later this year).
What I’d Like To See From Lufthansa
Project FOX has promise, but to truly validate the investment, Lufthansa must deliver more than marketing slogans. Some thoughts:
- Lufthansa’s joint venture partner United already offers more flexible dining in premium cabins, superior bedding, superior wine, three choices in economy class, and even a better pre-arrival meal l in economy class, particularly on flights from the West Coast to Europe or UK. Playing catch-up should just be a starting point…
- Some carriers now offer a full a la carte, dine-on-demand menu on longhaul flights; if Lufthansa staffs its flights adequately, it could offer this and it would be a game-changer than Air France-KLM and British Airways-Iberia do not offer
- Offering better bedding and pillows in economy class would be welcomed, though I know there would be pilferage concerns (which already exist in premium cabins…)
- A return of free beverages and snacks in short- and mid-haul economy class
- Free high-speed Wi-Fi internet in all cabins
- Power ports (at least high-powered) USB-C in all cabins on all planes
Most of all, I want Lufthansa to refrain from gaslighting us: these changes sound positive, but remember Allegris (the new hard product) was announced seven years before it debuted…I do prefer the way Japanese carriers do not announce positive announcements until they actually debut.
CONCLUSION
Lufthansa’s Project FOX is one of the most significant soft-product investments a major carrier has made in years. If executed well, it could restore Lufthansa’s reputation as a true premium flag carrier. But the devil is in the details. I am rooting for boldness, not gloss. Let’s see whether FOX becomes a milestone or just another empty promise.
image: Lufthansa
Lufthansa managed to use a heck of a lot of words to say very little. A very grand plan, but their promises seem to offer precious little at first glance.
Not surprising though, given the debacle with the seat roll out.
This is typicall to LH and (unfortunately) typicall to the world in 2025, many words, big marketing, great show and little to no information….
Read a user manual from 2000 – 5 pages and you know what to do.
Read a user manual from 2025 – 50 pages with a lot of bla bla and you need longer to read with less answers…
Just my five cents.
This is just marketing fluff.
If they were serious, they would not be consolidating management by moving oversight from the best run airlines in the group such as LX to the worst, LH.
Tbh it would probably take an overhaul of the current management for LH to become one of the top premium airlines, since they can’t seem to get it together.
People say BA’s F is the world’s “best business class.” I think that title should go to LH/LX F these days.
I miss LH/LX service in F pre-pandemic. I get that German and Swiss culture and interactions are a bit more taut, but it doesn’t hurt to give a smile or offer a refill of glasses in an eight person cabin, especially when paying full fare, often north of $10k for the ticket.
They need to become a friendly airline first, be friendly to customers, especially ethnic minorities, and the management stops thinking the customers are not enemies or over entitled. They need to trains all front line workers especially Germany based ones. I rarely see friendly lh staff but do see actively hostile ones quite frequently.
Seriously doubt they’ll deliver on Project FOX. Their track record speaks for itself:
– 7-year delays – Allegris seats announced in 2017, finally rolled out in 2024
– Record $4M discrimination fine – Banned 128 Jewish passengers in 2022 based on religious appearance. Employee literally said “Jewish people were the mess.” Their “apology” just blamed “non-compliance”
– Constant strikes – €350M lost in 2024 alone from labor strikes. Up to 1,000 flights canceled daily during disputes. More strikes threatened for 2025.
– IT infrastructure disasters – Major system failures in 2023 grounded hundreds of flights, forcing staff to check passengers in with pen and paper. Shows they lack basic redundancy systems.
– Customer service nightmare – Reviews (and my personal experience) consistently cite rude staff, terrible refund policies, and predatory fees. One reviewer had to fight for months to get a cancer-related refund that was initially approved.
– A CEO who’s asleep at the wheel – Spohr himself calls Lufthansa the “problem child” of the group as if he is somehow an observer (while taking a 9.1% pay raise to €5.6M in 2023).
— Spohr’s security team accused a 21-year-old avgeek of “spying” after the kid asked for a selfie and made a cardboard cutout.
— Sphor travels with a bodyguard and acts more like Bond villain than airline CEO.
They’re promising “signature moments” while they can’t even handle basic operations. Until they address the fundamental cultural and management rot, Project FOX is just expensive window dressing.
There’s a huge disconnect at Lufthansa, with the corporate eggheads situated in Köln, while the operations staff toil away in Frankfurt trying to make the best of the fakakte decrees passed down to them from the executive ivory tower. They all need to be consolidated in one place.
Lufthansa have operated behind the curve for decades for instance introducing angled lie flat seats as state of the art at a point where all other airlines were removing them and there are many more examples. Even their catering service which was about the only redeeming feature has been cut and cut.
It will need a change of DNA for Lufthansa to become anything like premium, I can’t see it happening while the current management remain.
The first thing I thought when I read the headline was “Allegris 2.0, lol”.
I really want to love the carrier that has so many 747s still in service, but if Fivestarhansa still hasn’t learned that they need to execute first and toot their horns later, I have to wonder if they will ever improve.
5Starhansa was nonsense from the day it was announced but no doubt they paid a big fee for it. That a star rating was issued on the basis of future improvement showed Skytrax up for the nonsense it always has been, credible to no one in the know.
More nebulous mumbo jumbo.