Aircraft seat shortages hamper airlines’ efforts to upgrade planes
A shortage of aircraft seats is adding to bottlenecks in the industry’s supply chains, hampering plans by airlines to refurbish cabin interiors and unveil new upgraded planes. Aircraft seats, in particular those for first and business class cabins, are among the most important differentiators for airlines in their bid to draw passengers. A combination of factors, including tighter certification rules and shortages of labour stemming from the pandemic, is continuing to hold up their production. The supply chain wobbles have come as airlines race to unveil new cabins as the industry recovers from the impact of the pandemic. Lufthansa in Germany this month unveiled a new set of long-haul cabins as part of a €2.5bn investment, which was significantly delayed because of supply chain problems. Extensive refurbishment programmes by several airlines, including the biggest ever $2bn retrofit programme from Emirates, have added to the demands on suppliers. French jet engine maker Safran, which is also one of the biggest suppliers of aircraft seats, said on Friday that business-class seat deliveries fell 25% in the first quarter as some shipments slipped into the second quarter. Olivier Andriès, CE, said certification rules by regulators had become “much more demanding” and were impacting the “entire interior industry”. Premium seats are “really important to airlines, they are part of the differentiation for passengers but are also really complicated to engineer, to manufacture and to certify”, said Nick Cunningham, analyst at Agency Partners. Executives from Boeing and Airbus said this week that the industry’s supply chain remains constrained, including supplies of cabin equipment. Guillaume Faury, Airbus CE, said the company was still struggling with supplies of cabin equipment, not just limited to seats, as well as with supplies of aerostructures. “It reflects the diversity of the difficulties and challenges in the supply chain.” Boeing, which is struggling to contain its latest crisis following the mid-air blowout of a section of one of its 737 Max aircraft in January, identified seats as a specific reason for constrained production of its 787 wide-body plane.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2024-04-29/general/aircraft-seat-shortages-hamper-airlines2019-efforts-to-upgrade-planes
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Aircraft seat shortages hamper airlines’ efforts to upgrade planes
A shortage of aircraft seats is adding to bottlenecks in the industry’s supply chains, hampering plans by airlines to refurbish cabin interiors and unveil new upgraded planes. Aircraft seats, in particular those for first and business class cabins, are among the most important differentiators for airlines in their bid to draw passengers. A combination of factors, including tighter certification rules and shortages of labour stemming from the pandemic, is continuing to hold up their production. The supply chain wobbles have come as airlines race to unveil new cabins as the industry recovers from the impact of the pandemic. Lufthansa in Germany this month unveiled a new set of long-haul cabins as part of a €2.5bn investment, which was significantly delayed because of supply chain problems. Extensive refurbishment programmes by several airlines, including the biggest ever $2bn retrofit programme from Emirates, have added to the demands on suppliers. French jet engine maker Safran, which is also one of the biggest suppliers of aircraft seats, said on Friday that business-class seat deliveries fell 25% in the first quarter as some shipments slipped into the second quarter. Olivier Andriès, CE, said certification rules by regulators had become “much more demanding” and were impacting the “entire interior industry”. Premium seats are “really important to airlines, they are part of the differentiation for passengers but are also really complicated to engineer, to manufacture and to certify”, said Nick Cunningham, analyst at Agency Partners. Executives from Boeing and Airbus said this week that the industry’s supply chain remains constrained, including supplies of cabin equipment. Guillaume Faury, Airbus CE, said the company was still struggling with supplies of cabin equipment, not just limited to seats, as well as with supplies of aerostructures. “It reflects the diversity of the difficulties and challenges in the supply chain.” Boeing, which is struggling to contain its latest crisis following the mid-air blowout of a section of one of its 737 Max aircraft in January, identified seats as a specific reason for constrained production of its 787 wide-body plane.<br/>
