The first of Air India’s (AI) 13 legacy Boeing 777 widebodies rolled back from Singapore on Wednesday sporting a revamped passenger cabin — new seat covers, fresh carpeting and a sharp interior lift.
The aircraft, registered as VT-ALK, returned from Singapore where its interiors underwent “colour, material and finish (CMF)“ rework for 52 days to give passengers a new feel and look.
This is only an interim enhancement programme for aircraft interiors and includes new upholstery for passenger seats, new carpeting and curtains, and fresh coat of paint on the cabin panels as well as lavatories, said a senior official of the airline. The interiors now sport the airline’s new colour scheme for seats.
AI aims at concluding the heavy cabin refresh programme for the 13 widebody aircraft used for flying some of the most profitable ultra long-haul routes to the U.S. and Europe by December this year.
However, a more thorough makeover for these planes such as replacement of seats as well as the dysfunctional in-flight entertainment screens on the back of the seats, is now delayed until 2026 after being originally scheduled to start in 2023.
A “retrofit” which includes seat and IFE replacement on the Boeing 787 will roll-out this month with the first of these 27 aircraft set to rejoin service in October, following which two to three B787s will be inducted per month until all of them have been upgraded. A similar exercise for the 27 legacy Boeing 787s will roll out this month as well.
The retrofit for the narrowbodies has already take off, with the first of the 27 A320 neos completing the process last month. Works on four such planes is said to have concluded and the airline aims to finish the process for all 27 aircraft by the third quarter of 2025.
Published – April 02, 2025 09:04 pm IST