Air India Reveals Totally New Cabins For Its Boeing 777 Fleet

Air India’s big brand reveal has hogged the headline space in all news publications for obvious reasons. Opinions about the carrier’s new livery are also trickling in on social media. But among the many things discussed at the media event on August 10th was Air India’s new interiors for its widebody fleet, with CEO Campbell Wilson presenting the first look of all four cabins that will feature on its Boeing 777 fleet next year.

Different product

While people may differ in their opinions about Air India, one thing that pretty much unites all of its customers is that its aircraft need refurbishment. Thankfully, that’s one of the topmost priorities of the Tata Group, and a massive sum of $400 million has been set aside for this task alone.

And while there’s still some time before we can see new cabins on Air India’s planes, its CEO Campbell Wilson presented a two-minute-long video of the new cabins that will feature on the carrier’s Boeing 777 fleet from next year.

The clip takes us through four different cabins – first class, business class, premium economy, and economy. Brown, beige, and gray seem to be the predominant colors in first and business class, while economy and premium economy feature dark red or maroon seats with gray headrests.

The airline will retain first class on its 777s. The video featured two seats in the middle row with ample space and a divider in the middle that can be drawn up. Privacy doors and fully-flat seats are obvious features, but what immediately jumps out is the option for wireless charging for mobile devices.

The same color scheme is seen in business class, which, too, comes with its own sliding door, wireless charging, and fully flat seats – miles apart from what Air India’s current outdated business class product offers.

Photo: Soos Jozsef/Shutterstock

The video also shows a significant portion of the plane dedicated to premium economy seats — a first for its older widebody planes — that are slightly bigger and have naturally more space than economy and also feature footrests. While both economy and premium economy seats seem to share the same color scheme, the economy seat fabric features tiny prints as opposed to the plain seats in premium economy.

New cabins by the second half of 2024

Mr. Wilson said that in about a year from now, the first of Air India’s 43 legacy widebody aircraft will enter the hangar for a complete interior refit, and passengers can start seeing the new 777 cabins in the second half of 2024.

Understanding the urgent need for a better onboard product and explaining the time-consuming process of aircraft refits, Mr. Wilson said that Air India is also leasing and buying 25 widebody aircraft with similar products this year and that six of such aircraft are already flying. By the end of this year, one-third of the carrier’s widebody fleet will be featuring products like this.

Photo: Wirestock Creators | Shutterstock

Apart from the new seats, there will be a new in-flight entertainment system featuring 1,700 hours of content – the largest of any other Indian airline and at par with other global airlines. Wilson added that over the next 2.5 years, Air India’s entire long-haul fleet will be completely reborn while the planes from the latest order will come with the latest in everything.

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