Summary
- Saudia partners with Collins Aerospace to revamp widebody fleet seating and enhance guest experience.
- The airline can be undergoing a big rebranding, including a brand new livery, logo, and AI-powered virtual assistant for post-sales queries and data.
- Many global airlines, akin to Emirates and Air India, are investing heavily in cabin upgrades.
Saudi Arabia’s flag carrier, Saudia, is undertaking an in depth fleet refurbishment program for its widebody fleet. The airline has entered a cope with Collins Aerospace for newly designed seats for its future Dreamliners, while a few of its current widebody planes may also see their seats replaced.
Recent seats
Saudia has announced that it has signed a contract with Collins Aerospace to put in newly designed seats on its upcoming Boeing 787 fleet, which can be delivered from early 2026 onwards. The carrier has also agreed to a comprehensive seat retrofit program to reinforce functionality and aesthetics for its current Airbus A330 and Boeing 777 fleet, starting in late 2025 and completing in 2027.
Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis | Shutterstock
Saudia has also said that the business class cabins across its widebody fleet will all have private suites. This can be a significant development in Saudia’s effort to raise guest experience. Rossen Dimitrov, Chief Customer Experience Officer at Saudia, commented,
The plan also includes establishing localized repair capabilities and choose spares manufacturing capabilities with Saudia Technic. This can be a big step towards the Group’s commitment to the localization of content within the region.
With this, Saudia expects to reinforce its in-house repair capability, streamline spares support, and deploy localized product support to optimize fleet performance and operational efficiency.
Photo: Nicolas Economou | Shutterstock
Significant facelift
Saudia is currently going through a big rebranding. Last yr, the airline revealed its recent aircraft livery and logo with recent colours featuring green, blue, and sand. The retrofitting of its widebody planes and the newly designed seats for the upcoming Dreamliners is all a part of the brand new vision for the carrier that can extend to all passenger touchpoints, including the onboard experience.
Maintaining with global trends and technology, Saudia can be investing in a brand new AI-powered virtual assistant. It’s being developed to assist passengers with post-sales queries using voice and text and to offer information in regards to the airport’s status, weather, visas, and transportation.
Thriving refurbishment market
Airlines invest significantly in aircraft refurbishment to maintain up with global trends and to stay competitive. Recent reports have suggested that Delta Air Lines is considering an aesthetic overhaul of its cabins and can possibly start with its Boeing 757 fleet.
Emirates’ massive $ 2 billion retrofit program includes its 120 A380s and Boeing 777-300ERs, while Air India is investing $400 million to refurbish its legacy Boeing 777 and 787 fleet.
Photo: ThaKlein | Shutterstock
Clearly, the aircraft refurbishment market has immense revenue potential and is expanding rapidly. In 2022, the market size for cabin upgrades was $5.53 billion; in 2023, it was almost $6 billion. Further growth is anticipated, and by 2027, the refurbishment space may very well be value $7.75 billion.
![PR-Image_Handover-A321LR-GAF-ILA_08_High-res](https://static1.simpleflyingimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/pr-image_handover-a321lr-gaf-ila_08_high-res.jpeg)
Cabin Investments To See Aircraft Refurbishing Market Reach $5.95 Billion This Yr
This market is rapidly expanding.
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