TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
Air India’s $400 million Retrofit Programme, which started last year, has made significant progress. The programme, aligning its legacy aircraft with the modern, passenger-focused standards of its newest deliveries, aim to enhance the in-flight experience and position the airline as a premium full-service carrier internationally.
TT Bureau
last year, Air India announced it has commenced its $400 million retrofit programme, one of the largest such programmes globally. The airline has since made significant strides in it, aligning its legacy aircraft with the modern, passenger-focused standards of its newest deliveries.
This comprehensive overhaul, encompassing narrowbody and widebody aircraft, is aimed at enhancing the inflight experience and positioning Air India as a premium full-service carrier.
With such a diverse fleet being retrofitted across locations in India and around the world and each set of aircraft having their own retrofit timelines, here is a deep dive into Air India’s programme with timelines of when travellers can expect to fly Air India’s other upgraded aircraft in time to come.
Four of Air India’s legacy Airbus A320 narrowbody aircraft have now been retrofitted to the same standard as on 14 recently-delivered aircraft, with the upgradation of 23 more legacy narrowbody aircraft to be completed by September 2025.
At that point, together with the aircraft acquired through the merger with Vistara, Air India full-service fleet of more than 110 narrowbody aircraft will have been upgraded to a world-class standard.
The 40 legacy widebody aircraft have also commenced their upgradation programme, which will ultimately see the entire fleet match the product already available on the airline’s flagship A350 service presently operating between Delhi and London and New York.
The first of 13 legacy Boeing B777 aircraft has just completed an interim “Heavy Refresh” that involved replacing interior panels, lavatories, seat upholstery, carpets, and curtains, with the remainder to follow in the coming months. The decision to undertake this interim heavy refresh ahead of full retrofit was made due to protracted delays in the delivery of seats from the contracted vendors, arising from industry-wide supply chain constraints.
The first of 27 legacy Boeing B787 fleet, on which the seat vendors have been less impacted relative to the B777s, will depart to Victorville, California, later this month where it will commence a full retrofit of new seats, entertainment systems and other interior fittings.
