Austrian Airlines to upgrade business class seats in Airbus fleet

Austrian Airlines has started revamping the cabin interiors of its Airbus fleet comprising of 29 aircrafts of various makes. These include Airbus A319, Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 aircrafts. The revamp exercise is expected to conclude in 2017.

Media reports said that the main changes involve upgrading Business Class comfort. The new business class seats would have higher quality cushions and greater seating space.

According to the reports, the seat spacing would be increased by 4 inches to 32 inches, from the existing 30 inches. The airline is planning to make the kitchens narrower and the storage space smaller for the board equipment. However, the free adjoining space would remain unaffected during the business class cabin revamp.

The revamp will also see the Economy Class seats spacing being reduced by one inch, from the existing 30 inches to 29 inches. The changes in economy class will take place in the airline’s 16 Airbus A320 aircraft and 7 Airbus A319 aircraft. The new changes will now correspond to the normal European standards currently in vogue in the civil aviation sector. The economy class will also see the addition of one row of seats after additional space is created with the renovation of washrooms. The number of seats on Airbus A320 aircraft would also increase to 174 from the existing 168 seats. The entire Airbus fleet of the airline will thus see the capacity in economy class being increased by 138 seats or an increase of 3 percent. The changes in economy class will however not impact the airline’s Airbus A321, Dash, Fokker and Embraer fleets.