In 2022, Air India announced plans to refurbish its legacy wide-body fleet, comprising 27 Boeing B787-8 and 13 B777 aircraft, committing over USD 400 million to the project. This refurbishment would completely overhaul existing cabin interiors, adding new seats and inflight entertainment across all classes. Air India also engaged London-based product design companies JPA Design and Trendworks to assist with this refurbishment programme’s cabin interior design elements.

Per the initial announcements, Air India’s 777 and 787 fleet retrofits had to start in the second half of 2024. The first aircraft to undergo a retrofit was going to be a 787-8, and this exercise was to be fully completed by the end of 2025.

However, Air India is not keeping up with the plan as intended. At the moment, only the A320neo retrofit is underway.

Air India’s widebody retrofit plans delayed

Air India’s retrofit programme, aimed at upgrading the legacy fleet, has faced delays and is expected to exceed the USD 400 million allocated now, according to media discussions Campbell Wilson had over the past week with TV journalists. The airline blames the delays on “supply chain constraints” and issues with the seat manufacturers.

According to Wilson, when the airline announced the retrofit exercise in 2022, it had already selected the seats for the aircraft.

Air India chose Recaro’s CL3710 and the new R3 seats for economy class, while the PL3530 was to be outfitted in the premium economy cabin.

The Safran Unity platform is expected to be fitted in the Business and First Class cabins.

Wilson blames delays in regulatory design certification and subsequent manufacturing processes on issues with supply chains, which have caused the airline to postpone its retrofit exercise. He said the airline would also switch seat vendors where needed.

According to CNBC-TV18, the airline will launch the 787 retrofit in April 2025 and expects the aircraft to return to the fleet by October 2025. However, he told another media outlet that the airline will retrofit 3 to 4 aircraft a month until the entire fleet is completed. So, the speed of the retrofit seems either too slow or too fast.

For the Boeing 777, the retrofit will take even longer and only undergo a “refresh” in 2025, while it will start in 2026. This seems to be a direct impact of the change of vendors, although we don’t know yet whether this is for the economy or business parts of the plane.

The induction of Air India Express 737 MAX aircraft also delayed

Air India was supposed to complete the induction of 50 white-tail 737 MAX aircraft, part of the order for jets for Air India/Express Group, by December 2024. However, Wilson told the media that 35 aircraft had already been inducted, but the rest would take longer until June 2025.

Bottomline

Customers of Air India will have to deal with tardy widebody aircraft for longer, given that the airline will not see the retrofit exercise launch before mid-2025. Hence, the retrofit will not be completed by 2025 as initially planned. Not only that, the airline’s subsidiary’s 737 MAX induction has also been delayed due to issues at Boeing.

What do you make of the delays at Air India for the retrofit?

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