Air India finishes repairs on 40% of seats as part of $400 million refit

Air India revamps 40% seats, adds Wi-Fi, Premium Economy cabin; Tata Technologies helps with 3-D printing of spares. Despite efforts, passengers still complain of broken furniture.

Crumbling seats, broken arm rests, dysfunctional seat-back entertainment screens on Air India’s aircraft often make the airline a subject of passenger ire but a massive repair and revamp exercise is afoot under which 40% seats across its widebody and narrowbody planes have already been repaired since the Tata take-over last January.

The airline has also committed over $400 million for brand-new interiors for its entire legacy widebody fleet comprising 27 Boeing 787-8s and 13 Boeing 777 aircraft.

The retrofit will comprise new seats, carpeting, upholstery and even the introduction of onboard Wi-Fi that will replace pre-loaded entertainment content that is currently available to passengers as well as the addition of a Premium Economy cabin. Some of these changes are being reviewed by Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Ratan Tata, himself, who was present earlier this month to view seat options for the premium cabin product. The fund for refreshed interiors was announced last December, but the first revamped aircraft will enter service only mid next year because of the long-drawn regulatory procedure.

“The job has started, but there is a lot of lead time,” says Air India’s Chief Technical Officer, Sisira Kanta Dash, in an interview to The Hindu.

Engineering modifications to aircraft interiors are carried out only after obtaining approvals from Indian and foreign regulators as the refurbishment exercise can result in crucial changes to aircraft weight as well as electricals.

In the meantime, the airline is focused on repairing broken aircraft furniture. This too has its own set of challenges given that the average fleet size is 12 years, and the government had long stopped pumping in money as it had made up its mind to sell the airline to a private player.