One third of wide body fleet to have modern seats, inflight entertainment systems by March next year: Air India

Loss-making Air India, which has embarked on a transformation plan, on Friday said that a third of its wide-body fleet will have modern seats and inflight entertainment systems by March 2024.

Earlier this year, the Tata Group-owned airline placed orders for 470 aircraft, including 70 wide-body ones, with Airbus and Boeing.

"By the end of this financial year, the six new A350s, together with the 5 leased B772LRs and 9 other B773ERs we're also inducting, will mean that our wide-body fleet will have grown in size by 30 per cent within a year," Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson said in his weekly message to the staff on Friday.

He also said that by March 2024, around a third of the total wide-body fleet will feature modern seats and inflight entertainment systems.

"The rest of the fleet will then commence their full USD 400 million interior refits so that our hard product is up to a consistently high standard on every aircraft," he added.

There have been complaints about malfunctioning seats and inflight entertainment systems in some wide-body aircraft, mostly operating on long and ultra-long haul routes.

The airline operates these planes, mainly to the US and Europe.

This week, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued the Letter of Type Acceptance for the airline's Rolls Royce-powered A350s.

Air India has 50 wide-body aircraft in its fleet of 124 planes. It has 15 B777-300s, 8 B777-200s and 27 B787-800s, while the rest are narrow-body ones.

Meanwhile, Air India and CFM International have finalised the order for LEAP engines for the carrier's new fleet of 400 narrow-body planes . The engines will power 210 Airbus A320/A321 neo and 190 Boeing 737 MAX family aircraft.