Air India dreams big on Boeing 787s

Mumbai: Even as Air India (AI) gears up to receive its first new aircraft, a Boeing 777-200 LR in June 2006, it has placed a $50 million (Rs 205 crore) order to install comfortable seats in the fleet of Boeing 787s that it has ordered, the first of which is scheduled for delivery in September 2008.
Boeing 787, called the Dreamliner, is still under development. Its first delivery is scheduled in August 2008 and AI is one its launch customers.
"We have selected Webber seats for the economy class and Contour seats for the business class to be installed in each of the 27 Boeing 787s, which would be inducted in our fleet from September 2008 onwards," said S Venkat, AI’s executive director (finance) as well as spokesman.
These seats are specially designed to ensure better passenger comforts and will be a marked change from the seats in Air India’s existing aircraft. Leading aircraft seats manufactures are EADS Sogerma, Sicma Aero Seat, Recaro Aircraft Seating, Avio Interiors, Contour Premium Aircraft Seating, to name a few.
Air India’s preference for Contour seats in the business class was made after taking a survey of several corporate bigwigs including Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata. The Webber seats for the economy class were also selected by a similar process.
07/05/07 Lalatendu Mishra/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Air India May 2007