Seat Challenges For Widebody Cabin Retrofits

For decades, airlines launched new aircraft, cabin concepts and seating products together, line-fitting the new cabins on the airframer’s final assembly line. But with ongoing delays in the supply of new widebody aircraft—particularly the Boeing 777X and 787 programs—airlines are turning to MRO providers and integrators to retrofit their new seating products instead. This brings new challenges for all concerned, including seat manufacturers, cabin integrators, airlines and MROs.

In some ways, the retrofit versus line-fit process can be very similar. “It’s very similar to us as a seat supplier because ultimately we just deliver the seats to either an aircraft OEM or an MRO in accordance to the contractual obligations,” says Edwin Ratnam, vice president for aftersales and services at Northern Ireland’s Thompson Aero Seating. “The implications are more so for the MRO because their core business would be aircraft maintenance and occasionally cabin reconfigurations, but the new generation business class and first-class products are complex and require specialist skillsets in their installation, operation and maintenance.”

Fundamentally, the contractual delivery and ongoing service for the seat involves the seat manufacturer, and suppliers will often provide expertise to reduce the risk of damage or other problems from incorrect installation or even simply loading onto the aircraft, especially where door-area monuments have not been removed prior to the retrofit process.

“Especially if you're talking about premium products, business class products, which are much more complex to install, we're also sending our people over to the [retrofit] location,” says Mark Hiller, CEO of German seat manufacturer Recaro. “For example, we have just run a major business class modification, which took place in Latin America, where we have sent over our experts from Germany and from our on-site support in in Toulouse and Hamburg.”

This creates complications, however: work visas may be required, as well as on-site airside passes at each individual MRO airport location. Having knowledgeable cabin engineers, already a scarce resource, stuck cooling their heels in an airport hotel because they cannot get on site is a major frustration.

“The whole aircraft and cabin maintenance industry is facing a crunch with skilled and experienced personnel,” says Ratnam. “This is compounded by the fact that wages are increasing while MROs are competing to bring maintenance costs down to attract airlines to lock in with long term deals … MROs are at full capacity and the whole airline market is locking in long term contracts to safeguard and secure their maintenance plans.”

Adding to the complexity, a seat manufacturer may not know the identity or location of the MRO or integration specialist when winning a contract, says Hiller.

“If we get a line-fit program, it's clear we're working together with Airbus. If we win a retrofit program, we might be informed months later who will be the integrator and where the integration will take place,” he says. “Sometimes we also need to push for the decision, because we need to have an early alignment. Nowadays, there's good demand in terms of retrofit programs and integrators, so sometimes it takes quite some time until the integrator is selected.”

A further complication is that, as result of various factors—including the slot pace at which airframers programmed their airline customers—there was an inherently different rate of production for line-fit and retrofit programs.

“Line-fit programs give us more of a long-term planning. If it's 50 ship sets, [this may be] over the next five years,” says Hiller. “It's low volume per month or per year, but [it] gives us a planning basis for five years. Retrofit is the opposite: it might be 50 ship sets, and the customer is asking to squeeze it into 12 months.”

Given the ongoing supply chain issues within the seat manufacturing sector, this five-fold acceleration of production rate is difficult to achieve, especially when considering the significantly more complex seats at the front of the aircraft.

The complexity of first, business and premium economy seats means the previous model of launching on a line-fit aircraft enabled prototyping, manufacturing, revision and modification of the product without necessitating substantial rework of the subsequent shipsets prior to installation. At the higher retrofit pace, this is much more difficult, adding costs, complexity and potential production quality issues, as well as the need for later aircraft downtime to make cabin modifications on wing.