New life for old jets: How cabin refurbishments deliver on sustainability as well as comfort

Whereas the pandemic disruption may really feel like a lifetime in the past to most of us, aviation continues to be recovering. Provide chains aren’t functioning as they need to, and deliveries of latest plane have been stalled. 

With airways pressured to carry onto plane for longer, many have taken the plunge and determined to replace these previous planes with brand-new interiors. Often, new cabins are debuted on model new jets, however as these jets aren’t coming quick sufficient, passengers flying in older plane at the moment are being handled to up to date cabins. 

Etihad just lately introduced it could make investments round $1 billion (€920 million) in refitting its Boeing 777 and 787 plane as new planes are taking too lengthy to reach. Emirates goes even additional, spending as a lot as $5 bn (€4.6 bn) on new interiors for its planes. 

Euronews Journey went to see what goes into making an previous plane appear to be new, and the way these cabin refurbishments ship extra than simply passenger consolation.

make an previous plane look model new

Though airways like Emirates and Etihad are spending billions on new interiors, you’re unlikely to expertise them until you’re flying lengthy haul. Airways are caring for short-haul flyers too, nevertheless, with a number of carriers enterprise important overhauls of their smaller planes. 

Finland’s flag provider Finnair has just lately undertaken a refit of its long-haul Airbus A330 fleet, putting in its new enterprise class interiors to deliver it into line with its newly delivered A350s. With that full, it was time to show its consideration to its regional plane.

Getting a revamp now’s Finnair’s fleet of 12 Embraer E190s, which have a median age of 16.8 years. Operated by its regional companion Norra, a few of these plane are pushing 19 years previous, however due to a contemporary new look, you’d by no means understand it.

“We see this renewal as an vital funding in journey consolation, and our goal is to offer a harmonious, contemporary and alluring journey surroundings for our prospects,” explains Eeva Mattila, engineer at Finnair Technical Operations.

Finnair invited Euronews Journey to Exeter Airport within the UK to see one of many Embraers present process its refit. To keep away from disruption to flight schedules, Finnair timed these refits with scheduled upkeep visits, when the plane would’ve been out of motion anyway. Even higher, when upkeep is carried out on the plane, the seats are eliminated as a part of the method. This time the engineers merely put in the brand new seats.

It takes round a month to hold out the upkeep on the plane. Merely refitting the cabin wouldn’t have taken as lengthy, however by combining the 2 processes in a single go to, there’s much less downtime for the planes. Exeter Aerospace, based mostly at Exeter Airport, are in a position to care for each jobs, making the method seamless for the airline.

After we arrived, the plane was empty besides for 2 pairs of seats that had been put in simply so we may strive them out. Regardless of their slimline look, the seats have been remarkably snug, with loads of legroom and good assist on your again. The sunshine gray leather-based end seems contemporary and fashionable and can give the plane an ethereal, spacious really feel.

The carpet wasn’t put in after we visited, however that may even get replaced. These modifications deliver these regional jets according to Finnair’s predominant fleet, utilizing comparable supplies, colors and finishes. There’s even a small wooden panel by the doorway door that echoes the airline’s use of wooden in its enterprise class cabins for long-haul flights.

These planes will fly to a number of locations in Finland and Europe, together with Manchester, Edinburgh, Paris and Dublin. Flight instances common round an hour and a half, so the journeys are pretty brief. However will all planes have the brand new cabin?

“Proper now, in case you fly an Embraer route, you may need the renewed cabin, or it’s possible you’ll not – it is a matter of luck,” explains Marjo Hamalainen, communications companion at Finnair. “However as we transfer ahead with the renewals, you might be increasingly prone to get the renewed cabin, and by spring ‘26, we’ll have your complete fleet renewed, after which you might be assured to expertise the renewed cabin.”

Thus far, three plane have been accomplished and this fourth one is sort of completed. By Could, six shall be finished. Throughout the peak summer season, Finnair wants all its Embraers again in service, so there’s a brief break earlier than the method begins once more within the autumn. By this time subsequent 12 months, all 12 plane shall be flying with the brand new cabins.

Why are airways retaining older plane longer?

It could appear to be a cop-out to maintain blaming the pandemic, however for aviation, the knock-on results are actual. Aerospace producers of all sizes and shapes have struggled to re-establish manufacturing traces, and damaged provide chains have taken time to fix.

Emirates had deliberate to start receiving Boeing’s model new 777X plane in 2020, however it nonetheless hasn’t had a single supply. Boeing’s newest promise was for arrival in October 2025, however the airline’s administration stays sceptical. With no new planes to fly, it has to carry onto its older plane for longer, therefore the large multi-billion greenback refurbishment programme.

The challenge was initially meant to incorporate 120 plane at a value of $2 billion (€1.8 billion). However as manufacturing delays floor on, Emirates expanded it in 2024 to 191 jets. In early March, Emirates CEO Sir Tim Clark revealed a fair additional growth, with a complete of 220 plane to be refurbished at a value of $5 billion ($4.6 billion).

“We’ve got no selection,” Clark informed reporters on the ITB tourism truthful in Berlin on 5 March. “That is the one approach we may maintain the community, develop the community.”

“The primary driver for this refurbishment program was the delay within the supply of latest plane,” explains Ahmed Safa, Head of Engineering at Emirates. “Boeing says the 777-9 is coming in 2026, however we actually do not suppose our plane will are available in ‘26, so we have needed to enhance the variety of refurbishments.”

Boeing’s issues have been nicely documented, however it’s not the one bottleneck. Airbus too, has struggled to get its merchandise out of the manufacturing unit on time. With the demand for air journey persevering with to surge, airways are eager to have as many lively plane as potential.

“From Airbus, we must always have 21 A350s now, however we solely have 4,” Safa explains. “We wish to add extra locations, which would require much more capability. So the shortage of latest plane means extra additions to the refurbishment programme are required.”

The influence was famous by business physique IATA in December when it revealed the worldwide common plane age had risen to a report excessive of 14.8 years. Pre-pandemic, it was simply over 13 years. That enhance of 1.8 years may not appear to be a lot, however it’s the primary time since 1990 that the typical age has gone above 14 years.

That ageing fleet will not be solely a priority for the passenger expertise but additionally for aviation’s internet zero targets. Expertise in new plane delivers gasoline burn (and related CO2 emission) financial savings of round 20 per cent in comparison with older fashions It’s seen as a key stepping stone to a greener aviation future.

“Producers are letting down their airline prospects and that’s having a direct influence of slowing down airways’ efforts to restrict their carbon emissions,” says Willie Walsh, director common of IATA. “If the plane and engine producers may type out their points and preserve their guarantees, we’d have a extra fuel-efficient fleet within the air.”

Can a refurbished plane even be a greener plane?

Whereas new plane are taking their time to get into airways’ arms, refurbishment provides alternatives to inexperienced up the fleet they’ve. Passenger consolation is vital, however so too are any sustainability enhancements that may be made within the course of.

“Sustainability is changing into ever extra vital for our airline prospects,” says Etienne Helfer Aubrac, VP of gross sales and advertising at Safran Seats, an plane seat producer based mostly in France. “A greener refurbishment can contain utilizing lighter and extra sturdy supplies, integrating recycled parts and optimising seat designs to scale back the carbon footprint over the plane’s lifespan.”

Finnair’s refurbishment centered on enhancing passenger consolation but additionally thought of the influence on the surroundings. 

Changing the earlier fabric seats with actual leather-based would include a excessive carbon value. When cattle farming, tanning and transportation are considered, cow pores and skin leather-based has a carbon footprint of roughly 110 kg of CO2 per sq. metre. And an plane cabin has a whole lot of sq. metres!

“They take leather-based offcuts that will in any other case find yourself in landfill and break them down into fibres,” explains Eeva Mattila, an engineer at Finnair Technical Operations. “Then they use recycled water to show them into a brand new recycled leather-based materials.”

This leather-based materials has a carbon footprint as much as 85 per cent decrease than that of conventional leather-based, and it’s extra light-weight too. These advantages have made this product a preferred selection for airways, flying on over 4 million seats worldwide at the moment.

Weight saving is a major focus for any airline. Each kilogram of additional weight means extra gasoline burned and extra CO2 emissions. Refurbishing a cabin is a superb alternative to take a few of the weight off the plane and create a extra environment friendly aircraft.

Finnair’s Recaro seats are extensively utilized in aviation as they mix slimline, light-weight building with ergonomic consolation. Utilizing composite supplies and high-performance plastics, the seats are in a position to stand up to the punishment of many flights and weigh considerably lower than the airline’s previous seats. 

When KLM refurbished its Boeing 737s in 2021, it additionally opted for recycled leather-based and put in comparable Recaro seats, which have been 20 per cent lighter than these they changed. This, it stated, lowered the entire cabin weight by 700 kg, saving 184 tonnes of CO2 per plane per 12 months.

Air France picked carbon fibre and titanium for its Embraer refurbishment, designing an ultra-lightweight seat with recycled parts and as little plastic as potential. Customized-made by French producer Expliseat, every seat shall be 30 per cent lighter than the present mannequin.

In addition to lighter seats and sustainable supplies, Finnair’s modifications to the onboard lighting have additionally taken weight off the aircraft. Their determination to not set up energy to every seat, which most likely wouldn’t be wanted on brief flights anyway, was additionally pushed by a need to not add weight to the planes.

For Finnair, the modifications they’re making to the Embraers will scale back the onboard weight by 150 kg per plane. As soon as all 12 have been accomplished, the airline will save about 135,000 kg of gasoline yearly and scale back CO2 emissions by 420,000 kg per 12 months. That’s the identical as taking greater than 400 automobiles off the highway.

What occurs to the previous interiors when plane are refurbished?

Airways have give you quite a lot of revolutionary options to cope with their used seats and interiors. Relying on the situation of the supplies, in addition to the airline’s insurance policies, the parts are reused, repurposed, or recycled.

Materials from seats could be reused in carpet yarn. Steel parts are melted down and recycled. Plastics utilized in cabins could be more durable to repurpose, however a number of firms are engaged on options to reuse and recycle them effectively.

Emirates got here up with a novel thought for its previous interiors, turning a few of them into limited-edition journey baggage. From suitcases made utilizing seat leather-based to toiletry luggage normal from captain’s chair fur, the airline has been upcycling all types of elements from its previous interiors.

“After all we labored wth suppliers to provide lighter supplies and sub elements for the seats,” says Amhed Safa, “however our contribution to the inexperienced effort has been bolstered by how we’ve repurposed and upcycled the eliminated elements, the excess elements and the scrap elements.”

Emirates desires to ‘upcycle’ nearly every part it’s taking off the plane. “My mandate to the fellows is something that is destined for scrappage have to be focused for an upcycling exercise,” says Safa. “We began with the simpler ones – the comfortable furnishings, leathers and materials, the curtains and the carpets and all that stuff. 

“We have made enormous strides there and produced some actually cool stuff. Now the following step is to make use of the suitable ability set to assist us have a look at the extra strong parts from the cabin, the aluminiums and the composites and the opposite plastics.”

Emirates does provide a few of these merchandise on the market, and Safa says the demand has been distinctive. However this isn’t a profit-making train. “After we first pitched the thought of recycling, we have been inundated with curiosity from firms who needed to take the stuff after which repurpose it and promote it for revenue, and that went towards the intent of our mission.”

Emirates was decided to deliver advantages to the broader group from its upcycling efforts. It has already donated 1000’s of merchandise to colleges, NGOs and group teams in a number of African international locations, and has a plan to do the identical in India, Pakistan and different locations. Whereas a small proportion of its ‘Aircrafted by Emirates’ vary is accessible on the market to most of the people, the proceeds from these gross sales may even go to assist communities in want.

For Finnair, its previous seats, or no less than a few of them, have discovered a brand new residence with different airways. Though they’re a bit drained for Finnair, funds carriers and airways from creating international locations will discover they’re simply advantageous for his or her wants. Those who aren’t being bought shall be reused as a lot as potential or recycled.

“With a few of the previous seats, we’ve stripped them for elements,” famous Hamalainen. “We’re nonetheless utilizing these seats till subsequent spring, so we’ll nonetheless want some spares. We’re recycling as a lot as potential.”

Will the passenger expertise actually be pretty much as good?

For the typical passenger, the seats and facilities are the main target of whether or not they have a very good flight or not. Not many would know or care how previous the plane is, so long as it’s snug and has every part they want.

Airways realise this and have centered refurbishments on getting one of the best from the tools they’ve. These aren’t cut-price refits; refurbishments are simply as meticulously deliberate and executed as they might be in a brand-new plane.

“A well-executed refurbishment can deliver an older plane as much as the identical consolation requirements as a brand new one and generally even higher,” says Aubrac. “Airways see cabin retrofits as a possibility to create a high-quality onboard expertise, simply as they do with brand-new plane.”

In addition to altering the elements passengers see on a regular basis, plane refurbishment typically touches the elements of the aircraft we not often encounter. Galleys, ovens, crew relaxation areas and even flight deck furnishings are continuously changed as a part of the method. Whilst you may not get to see it, you’ll discover the distinction in a happier crew, higher meals and well-managed processes.

Subsequent time you’re on a aircraft, attempt to guess its age based mostly on what you may see. Then search for its registration to see in case you’re proper. Whereas brand-new plane are nice, if it’s important to fly on an previous one, you’ll be glad the airline invested in renewing the cabin so it feels identical to new.