Last September, Air India sent one of its aircraft (VT-EXN) to Hosur for a refit. This would involve reconfiguration of the aircraft to the new standard three class layout and repainting to the new Air India livery, which was modified with the smudge on the tail being taken away. The refit included new seats, new carpets, curtains and upholstery. The aircraft was expected to re-enter service in December 2024, joining the eight three-class Air India A320neo aircraft that already feature the upgraded cabin interiors and configuration. Instead, the aircraft re-entered service in March and the refit of 27 planes which was to end by June 2025 with three to four aircraft per month, got extended to October, missing multiple deadlines announced by the airline on the way. The initial was June, followed by September, both of which were missed. The last plane is now scheduled to start flying starting today, with a flight to Delhi from Nagpur and getting inducted into active service thereafter.
A twitter user AviationAll_ diligently tracked each aircraft, amongst other things that are tracked by the same handle and this blog post is in active collaboration with AviationAll_.
The second (VT-EXP) and third (VT-EXQ) aircraft followed with one each at Nagpur and Hosur. Over a period of time, the airline started handling multiple aircraft for refit at a time, with Hosur and Nagpur being the primary MROs, which was later followed with a third one at GMR Hyderabad.
The total time taken for 27 planes, 409 days, with 10 being refurbished at Hosur, 12 at Nagpur and five at Hyderabad. The ones at Hyderabad taking the least time, with an average of less than 20 days, while those at Hosure taking the most with an average of 50.2 days per aircraft, largely due to the first one taking 163 days. If the first one is removed from calculation since it also includes certification time, the average for Hosur comes down to 37.6 which is still the highest. One would assume that the aircraft at Hosur had other maintenance requirements which were covered simultaneously.
The shortest time taken was at Hyderabad for VT-CIQ, which was 15 days; while the longest barring the first one was at Hosur for VT-CIF, which was 74 days.
The refit project was overseen by Air India’s engineering team with leading global OEMs such as Collins, Astronics and Thales among others being part of the whole exercise which saw installation of over 15,000 seats across the three classes. This makes the aircraft at par with Vistara’s three-class A320neo aircraft, giving immense operational ability to swap planes and plan routes with standardised service and configuration.
What does the three class A320 offer?
The airline now has a fleet of four A320ceo, seven A319s, 13 A321ceo, 94 A320neo – all in three class configuration, and ten A321neo, all ex-Vistara.
The refurbished fleet now has a capacity of 164 seats, two more than what it had in dual class configuration and comes from crunching the leg room. Here is the summary of what to expect in these aircraft.
8 Business Class, 24 Premium Economy and 132 economy class seats
- Business class
- 40 inch seat with 7 inch recline
- Adjustable armrest, footrest and backrest
- Push button tray table included Personal Electronic Device (PED) holder with charging ports
- Premium Economy
- Four way adjustable headrest
- 32 inch pitch and 4 inch recline
- PED holder and USB ports
- Economy
- 28-29 inch seat pitch, 4 inch recline
- PED holder and USB ports
Interestingly, on October 28, 2025, Air India Express announced that first of its 50 B737 MAX8 refurbishment is complete and features 29 inch seat pitch, with the lowest being one inch more than the lower of full service carrier and parent Air India.
Found this article informative? Think of supporting Network Thoughts with Power of 10
Running this website incurs some cost, along with the data sourced for analytics. If you have liked this article, consider paying INR 10 via UPI. The site will continue to be free. This will help with the maintenance, upkeep and funding the research. You can also pay via Debit or Credit card by clicking on this link.
You can support Network Thoughts by ordering Network Thoughts baggage tags and lapel pins !
Follow NetworkThoughts on X (Formerly Twitter), Bsky, Facebook and YouTube.
Related
