Lufthansa Finds First-Class Seats Don't Always Pay

Lufthansa is ditching the first-class cabin on about a third of its long-haul fleet, a move meant to lower costs that comes in response to weak demand on many routes. The German airline said today that some flights to Canada, India, Thailand, and Africa will have only business class.

The market for first class—a rarefied world of private lounges, gourmet meals, extravagant bed linens, and luxury car rides to the airport—remains exceedingly lucrative for global airlines. But in the grand scheme, ultraluxury tickets represent a tiny sliver of the overall business. A recent estimate by Emirates President Tim Clark pegged the entire worldwide market of travelers able to pay for such pampering at just 1 million people in total.