Inside Lufthansa's new Airbus A350

Lufthansa will begin flying the new Airbus A350 by the end of 2016 with the first 10 jets in its 25-strong order to be based in Munich.

Boston and Delhi will be among the first destinations for the next-gen jetliner, which will replace the German flag-carrier's older gas-guzzling Airbus A340s, with Hong Kong and Beijing expected to follow.

Lufthansa is adopting a fairly conventional three-class layout for its A350-900s.

There'll be 48 business class seats using the airline's current design in a 2-2-2 layout.

(There's an all-new business class on the way but that won't debut until 2020 on Lufthansa's Boeing 777-9X fleet, below.).

Further back will be a compact premium economy cabin with room for just 21 passengers in a 2-3-2 seating grid.

Those seats are expected to have a 38 inch pitch and be up to 1.2 inches (3cm) wider than the standard economy seat,  of which there are 224 through the rest of the plane.

Passengers in all classes from tip to tail will be able to tap into Lufthansa's FlyNet inflight Internet service at rates from an insanely steep €9 (A$13) pet hour to a far more sensible €17 (A$25) for the entire flight.