40% Air India seats repaired since Tata take-over

An Air India passenger aircraft taxis on the tarmac while another one lands at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai, India, May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
| Photo Credit: FRANCIS MASCARENHAS

Crumbling seats, broken armrests, and 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 wide-body and narrow-body 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 wide-body fleet comprising 27 Boeing 787-8s and 13 Boeing 777 aircraft and the first revamped aircraft will be ready by mid-2024.

“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.

In the meantime, the airline is focused on repairing broken aircraft furniture.

“Say our seats are 12 years old. The manufacturer is not producing the same seats anymore, and neither are spares available. Take, for instance, reclination actuators. If they are not being manufactured, the only solution is to repair them. But many vendors are not available to repair because even spares are not available,” explains Mr. Dash. So, Tata Sons- owned Air India is now seeking help from another group entity, Tata Technologies, for 3-D printing of small spare parts to make seats serviceable.

He explains that since the Tatas bought the airline from the government in January 2022, as many as 40% seats on a total of 141 aircraft, comprising wide-bodies and narrow-bodies, have been repaired. He also claims that 99% in-flight entertainment screens on business class and first class seats and 90% on economy seats have also been fixed. Re-carpeting of all planes, barring two wide-bodies, has also been achieved.

However, complaints still persist.

“If we have released an aircraft from here, when it returns, we will find something not working. We try to ensure 100% serviceability for business and first-class out of the base. That is the target, and we are more or less able to achieve that,” Mr. Dash noted.

These works will continue alongside the induction of new planes from the 470-aircraft order placed with Airbus and Boeing earlier this year among which the wide-bodies arriving this year include six A350s.