Air India has started sending its legacy Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners for retrofit and the retrofitted aeroplanes will have a three-class configuration, with the first such aircraft expected to join the fleet by year-end, according to sources.
The Tata Group-owned carrier, which currently has a fleet of around 190 planes, aims to complete the retrofit of all the legacy Dreamliners by the middle of 2027.
There are a total of 33 Dreamliners with Air India -- 26 legacy Boeing 787-8s and 7 Boeing 787-9s.
The first legacy Dreamliner has gone for retrofit at a Boeing facility in the US and there will be various certification processes. The retrofitted plane, which will also be the template for the remaining ones, is expected to join the fleet by the end of this year. Once that is done, the airline aims to send two legacy Dreamliners every month for retrofitting, the sources said.
These retrofitted planes will have a three-class configuration each comprising 20 Business Class, 25 Premium Economy and 205 Economy class seats.
Currently, the airline's Boeing 787-8s have 18 Business and 238 Economy class seats each.
An Air India spokesperson said the retrofit process for the legacy Boeing 787-8s have commenced.
"By the end of this financial year, hopefully about 68 per cent of the wide-body fleet will be upgraded and the complete fleet will be upgraded sometime in calendar 2027," Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson told PTI in an interview in June.
The carrier has already started the heavy refresh programme of the legacy Boeing 777s. Heavy refresh of an aircraft includes having new carpets, seat covers, cushions and fixing broken seats. The refresh of these planes is expected to complete by the end of this year.
On June 12, the airline's Boeing 787-8 aircraft enroute to London Gatwick crashed into a building soon after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people, including 241 passengers who were onboard the ill-fated plane. One passenger survived.
Meanwhile, the retrofitting of the carrier's 27 legacy A320 neos are in progress, with the process being completed for 14 such planes. The remaining 13 aircraft are expected to be retrofitted by the end of September, the sources said.
Air India has also decided to retrofit its 13 legacy A321 ceo planes that were earlier planned to be taken out of service.
In December 2022, the airline announced the USD 400 million comprehensive retrofit programme covering both legacy narrow-body and wide-body planes.
"I believe 65-68 per cent of the narrow-body fleet has been upgraded. We are eyeing to complete all of them by the end of this year... the narrow-body fleet (upgradation) will be completed this year," Wilson had said in June.
This report includes content sourced from Press Trust of India (PTI), edited for clarity and context.
