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Two-thirds of Air Indias Boeing 787-8 fleet will be upgraded by end of 2026: Campbell

GURUGRAM: Air India CEO and Managing Director Campbell Wilson on Monday said the year 2026 is set to witness significant changes to the airlines fleet. Nearly two-thirds of the wide body Boeing 787-8 aircraft would be upgraded next year while the entire fleet would be upgraded by 2027. Briefing newspersons at the Air India Training Academy at Gurugram, Wilson spoke at length about the wide body upgradation programme underway. The first two of our 787-788 legacy aircraft are undergoing upgradation in California and are receiving a completely new interior and wi-fi connectivity. They will come into service by February 2026. Thereafter, we will be pushing through two to three aircraft every month. So , all the 26 legacy 787-8 aircraft will be upgraded by the end of 2027. By the end of 2026, about two-thirds of the 787-8 fleet will be upgraded. These aircraft operate to mainland Europe, Australasia, and some of the major markets in SouthEast Asia. Over the course of 2026 you will see more and more of those routes being operated by the new world class Air India aircraft, he added. Air India has begun receiving the wide bodies purchased back in 2022. The first wide body aircraft manufactured specially for Air India, the line fit 787-9 should arrive just before Christmas and will go into service in January. Throughout the course of 2026, we should receive six new wide bodies a mix of 787-9s and A350-1000s along with atleast a couple of dozen narrow body aircraft, he elaborated. The customer experience on Air India flights will be much better in 2026, the CEO stressed stating that the retrofit of the interiors of the narrow body aircraft was taking place. Pic of the retrofitted 787-8 aircraft. Presently about 83% of the narrow body fleet has been upgraded. And the 17 aircraft that are yet to be upgraded were originally planned to be retired but decided to keep them later because of slow deliveries from Airbus and Boeing. For the Vistara aircraft, the liveries have started arriving. We will start the interior branding from this month. So, we are nearly at the end of the narrow body upgradation programme. He pointed out that 52% of the international routes are presently operated by the new aircraft and they are primarily to London Heathrow, New York, San Francisco, Singapore and Dubai. By the end of 2026, 81% of the international services would be operated by the upgraded aircraft, he said. Wilson said that 524 out of the 570 aircraft that it had placed firm orders are yet to be delivered and will be done in the next few years. They will start coming in significant volumes in 2027 and 2028. Along with it, the retrofitting of 50 `White tails of Air India Express aircraft are underway. These tail aircraft with a two class configuration were ordered by another airline but the delivery could not be taken due to COVID. So, we have started the process of converting the two-class configuration into a single class configuration. That will be completed by 2026. The travel demand to the US had been impacted due to air space restrictions and other issues but it was a transitory phase, he added. New beverage menu would be introduced soon on its aircraft. The upgraded portfolio will have a choice of aged single malts and boutique wines, the MD said. A world class lounge would soon be launched at Delhi international airports T3 while a new domestic lounge is planned by mid-2026, he added.