Air India has been in a rush to refurbish its old aircraft, which has caused it to receive a lot of criticism. As reported in December 2024, the airline will launch the 787 retrofit in April 2025 and expects the aircraft to return to the fleet by October 2025. For the Boeing 777, the retrofit will take even longer and only undergo a “refresh” in 2025. Now, we have an update.
Air India launches “refresh” of the 777 aircraft.
Air India has begun refreshing its Boeing 777 fleet amid global supply chain disruptions, affecting its complete retrofit plans. The aircraft, primarily used on US and Canadian routes, will be sent to SIA Engineering Company for a refresh. For that matter, 17-year-old Boeing 777 registered VT-ALK flew to Singapore on February 3, 2025, for a refresh.
The refresh will focus on introducing new seat covers, cushions, curtains, and carpets, which align with Air India’s updated brand identity. However, this “refresh” will not touch any hardware on the plane, which means the seats or the IFE will not be replaced, or Premium Economy will not be introduced on these aircraft since the lack of hardware is what is causing AI to switch from Refurbish to Refresh in the first place. Air India hopes to refresh all their 777 aircraft by December 2025.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson told Reuters earlier this week that the airline is experiencing delays in parts and supplies to refit existing aircraft, with delays ranging between 6-9 months from some vendors and 18 months from others.
Air India, in a statement issued on February 13, 2025, also confirmed that the modernisation of the narrowbody aircraft is progressing well and will be completed in mid-2025. The airline will put the first of its legacy widebodies, a Boeing 787-8, into retrofit in April and re-enter service in October 2025. Two to three B787s will be inducted monthly after the first one returns, until all 27 legacy 787-8 aircraft have been upgraded.
They said the retrofit of the legacy Boeing 777 fleet with new seats and entertainment systems will now commence in early 2026.
Bottomline
Air India has to delay retrofitting their Boeing 777 aircraft because the airline cannot get seats from the vendors early enough. The airline, in the meantime, will refresh these aircraft so that customers get better-looking seats. However, the 787 retrofit programme will get underway in April 2025.
What do you make of Air India’s plans to refresh their aircraft for the time being?
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