Avianca completes Airbus A320 cabin reconfiguration on 104 aircraft

Avianca has finished retrofitting its Airbus A320-family-based fleet, which allowed the company to increase the capacity of 104 aircraft by 20% and offer 180 seats per plane in a three-class configuration, which has been received with mixed reviews by travelers. Following Avianca’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy process in the United States, the Colombian airline shifted its business model from a legacy-oriented to a more low-cost-oriented one. To adapt to this new scenario, the company decided to retrofit its entire narrowbody Airbus A320 fleet, increasing the onboard capacity of each aircraft by 20%. The task was challenging: Avianca had to retrofit the cabins of 104 A320 planes, introducing new Recaro seats and giving each aircraft the capacity to carry 180 passengers in three different classes, Premium, Plus, and Economy.<br/>By adding these new seats, Avianca could offer extra capacity per flight and reduce by 15.35% the CO2 emissions of each carried passenger, the company said. The retrofitting process was undertaken in less than two years, a record time, while also facing unique challenges such as the COVID-19 restrictions and supply chain constraints around the world. The process was made in-house, employing over 1,500 trained technicians from the airline’s MRO. <br/>