Air India’s retrofits and new aircraft orders are the talk of the town, given that the airline has managed to fix its short-haul experience, but on long-haul flights, the planes have been in a worn-out state most of the time.
It is no secret that Air India’s key bread and butter is the international long-haul market, which it has served for decades. This is now a bit of a challenge from IndiGo, which has started flying long-haul effective July 2025, and from international carriers that already serve, or want to serve, India. So far, the long-haul fleet of Air India includes the following aircraft:
- 6 Airbus A350-900
- 2 Boeing 777-200 (Active)
- 15 Boeing 777-300ER (Active)
- 26 Boeing 787-8 (2 currently being retrofitted)
- 6 Boeing 787-9 (ex-Vistara)
The other widebody aircraft that are on order at the moment are:
- 44 Airbus A350s (25 Airbus A350-1000 and 19 Airbus A350-900)
- 20 Boeing 787-9s
- 10 Boeing 777-9s
As reported in December 2024, the airline planned to launch the 787 retrofit in April 2025 and anticipated the aircraft returning to the fleet by October 2025. For the Boeing 777, the retrofit will take even longer and is only undergoing a “refresh” in 2025. Air India began refreshing its Boeing 777 fleet in February 2025, amid global supply chain disruptions that affected its comprehensive retrofit plans. The first aircraft, primarily used on US and Canadian routes, was the 17-year-old Boeing 777 registered VT-ALK.
Air India chooses the Adient Ascent seat for the Boeing 787 aircraft
As we confirmed earlier, Air India has commenced the widebody retrofit programme for its legacy Boeing 787-8 aircraft, with the first of 26 aircraft (VT-ANT) having flown to a Boeing facility in Victorville, California (United States) in July 2025. A second aircraft (VT-ANP) departed for the same facility in October 2025. According to earlier updates, the airline was to launch the 787 retrofit in April 2025 and expected the aircraft to return to the fleet by October 2025, which was moved to December 2025, and is now expected in February 2026.
A few weeks ago, I put out what was the first image of the Boeing 787-8 retrofit business class.
Coming Soon pic.twitter.com/8Sqg4QozrG
— Ajay Awtaney (@LiveFromALounge) October 31, 2025
Anyhow, Air India has now started to talk about it more openly. Air India has selected the Adient Ascent product for the Boeing 787s (both the 787-8 retrofit and the 787-9 line-fit). Here is the first image Air India released during a media briefing yesterday of its 787-8 retrofit, showing these seats fitted out.
Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Business Class (Image Courtesy: Air India)
Air India had earlier used an open-format Zodiac Aura Lite seat with a 2-2-2 layout, resulting in a total of 18 seats used to fit out the aircraft. With the staggered layout, Air India has managed to fit in 20 seats in the same space (between doors L1 and L2). Each row has a 1-2-1 layout, so each seat has direct aisle access, and there are also doors for everyone.
The Adient Ascent seat is manufactured explicitly for the Boeing 787 as a part of the JV between Adient and Boeing. Qatar Airways, American Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines have selected the same seat. It will also be available on United shortly.
Qatar Airways Business Class (with Doors) on their Boeing 787-9
I do expect that on their linefit Boeing 787-9 aircraft, there will be 30 Business Class seats with the same layout (to also match the 787-9 seat map from the 6 ex-Vistara Aircraft, which will be repainted but not retrofitted anytime soon). Along with these seats, Air India will equip the planes with Thales AVANT in-flight entertainment system (and some on-board Wi-Fi as well).
Air India’s linefit A350s to go with Recaro R7
The industry expects that the Safran Unity programme will be the seat of choice for Air India’s widebody aircraft. Nope. LiveFromALounge has it on good authority that the plan is off the table, and has been for a while. On the A350-1000, you will see it arriving in 2026; you will note that the Recaro R7 will be the suite of choice installed. Recaro’s R7 is the only widebody business-class suite offering from Recaro, and I saw it at AIX2025.
Recaro R7 (Image: Ajay Awtaney)
Now, the R7 is currently undergoing a retrofit project with LATAM, and Iberia was the launch customer of the seat, having fitted it out on its Airbus A350-900 aircraft. The R7 is one of the lightest business class suites there is. The initial A350-1000 aircraft might have a business plus product but may omit a First Class Product.
Air India’s 777-300ER retrofit will sport the Collins Aerospace Elevation
Now to the last part of the Air India retrofit plan. The 777-300ER, which will be one of Air India’s long-haul leaders, will head to Collins Aerospace for the Business Class Retrofit. Collins Aerospace Super Diamond has been the product of choice for many carriers, including British Airways’ Club Suites, Etihad Airways, American Airlines, Air Canada, and China Airlines.
British Airways Club Suite on the Boeing 777-300 ER (Image: Ajay Awtaney)
British Airways Club Suite Cabin on the Boeing 777-300 ER (Image: Ajay Awtaney)
The Elevation is an updated version of the Super Diamond. It’s lighter, modular, and engineered to fit into more cabin layouts without sacrificing passenger space. It is a new version and is hence sparsely seen so far. For instance, Malaysia Airlines has installed it on its A330neo, and it looks smashing. Ethiopian Airlines has also signed on for it for 11 A350-900 neos and its Boeing 777-9 aircraft.
The Elevation Seat on Malaysia Airlines A330neo (Image via airline)
All of this differs from the Safran Unity platform initially showcased in 2023 by Air India. As the Air India CEO had said, they could not get the seats in time from Safran, so they went around changing their platform in favour of various new products.
The Future is Bright
So, all of these products are top-notch and best-in-class. Perhaps it helps Air India not to put all its eggs in one basket and to go with many different suppliers. Not only does it keep delivery timelines short, but it also derisks it from failure due to a single vendor. From a customer perspective, all of these seats will feature privacy doors, so everyone gets a private seat, even on long and ultra-long-haul flights. Another thing to note is that the seats will be closer to the supplier. For instance, Boeing planes all have American assemblies, which will be easy to move to Victorville or San Antonio (depending on whether it’s a retrofit or linefit). Airbus planes will also get Recaro, based in Germany.
Bottomline
Air India has moved away from the Safran Platform for business class on its widebodies and is now working with Adient, Collins Aerospace and Recaro. The 787-8/9 will get Adient Ascent seats, the 777s will get Collins Aerospace Elevation, and the A350s will get the Recaro R7. Passengers can look forward to fully flat beds with privacy doors and direct aisle access, as and when these planes roll out from the lines, and it will be a much better standard going forward.
What do you make of Air India’s planned business class installations?
Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay. Every contribution helps cover the cost of the content generated for your benefit.
(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. For international transactions, use Paypal to process the transaction.)
We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.
Safran Unity was supposed to be an industry-leading product; both the R7 and Collins products seem much denser and also a significant downgrade from what Safran Unity would have been!!
Ig they don’t want to compete with the ME giants but to
1) Compete with European airlines for direct traffic
2) Act as a feeder airline for SIA
This imo mimics the BA model a lot..
Exactly! This is such a downgrade, when their ambitions are so high! Instead of getting better they are compromising for worse seats due to shortage, at a time when Emirates has got Safran a whole new factory in UAE to produce seats which are even better than the Unity (S-Lounge) and even economy Z400 seats for them. Air India could have ordered the same seats for their now humongous order book as well as for their AIX brand’s economy seats and got better commitment from Safran but alas, we get a downgrade as usual being treated like second class customers.
Now that Air India has moved away from the Safran Unity seats to a combination of Collins Elevation, Recaro R7 and Adient Ascent seats. What happens to the first class section of the aircraft which I believe that bothe the A350-1000 and retrofitted B777-300ER were poised to get.
The Collins Elevation seats doesn’t have options for a business class plus (compared to its ELEMENTS sibling) that we can base the first class on.
The Adient Ascent and Recaro R7 both have business class plus (with the Recaro R7 being the closest to getting something similar to what the Safran Unity could have looked like).
Are they completely abandoning First class sales/market.
Or do they plan on introducing a more traditional first class section.
Or is the new seats still going to be squeezed out into a business plus but marketed as first class.
@Zephyr, working on identifying that as well. They are going to do some F on the A350K (not all, some) and B777 as well.
So excited about Air India’s revitalisation and can’t wait to fly on each of these beauties!
Would be curious to see how these compare with the initially proposed Safran Unity