Iberia to upgrade A320 cabins with L Bins retrofit

MRO Europe, Amsterdam, 18 October 2023 - Spanish flag-carrier Iberia will further improve their passengers’ flight experience by outfitting its A320 aircraft with newly launched L Bins. The upgraded aircraft will be equipped with the new stowages at the beginning of 2025.

The now Airbus-aircraft-only operator is the second airline to choose the Airspace L Bins which are a more compact model of the XL Bins, introduced in June this year at Aircraft Interior eXpo (AIX) in Hamburg, Germany.

The new bins allow vertical loading of carry-on roller bags, resulting in a 60% increase in baggage capacity, further improving passenger experience and reducing cabin crew workload, in particular during boarding and deplaning.

The new Airspace L Bins share common parts with Airspace XL Bins lowering spares holding costs in mixed fleets while perfectly matching the Airspace design language. In addition, a simplified mechanism will increase reliability and reduce maintenance costs. Retrofittable in just 3 to 5 days, the optimised plug & play replacement of the in-service bins will allow Iberia to minimize the out-of-service time of the aircraft.

“We are proud to announce this contract with Airbus, one of our key partners, because with the new Airbus´L bins, we will be able to improve our customers' experience. The new luggage compartments increase the hand luggage capacity on our A320neo fleet by 60%. In addition, this improvement also translates into faster boarding and deplaning, which also makes it easier for us to continue to meet our strict punctuality targets and provide excellent service to our customers”, stated Alberto Garcia, Fleet Planning Director at Iberia.

"The L Bins are a game changer, enhancing passengers' experience and streamlining cabin crew workflow. We are very happy to see the L Bin being part of Iberia's unwavering quest of excellence and punctuality" said Charbel Youzkatli - Head of Commercial Services Europe. 

The bins, which are made of ultra-lightweight and highly stable composite products, will be manufactured by EFW (Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH), an Airbus First Tier supplier for composite components since 1993. Production will take place in a new state-of-the-art manufacturing site employing measures such as photovoltaics and bioenergy.

About Iberia: Iberia has been flying from Spain for more than 95 years, with the purpose of generating prosperity, connecting people with the world. It is part of International Airline Group, the first airline group worldwide to commit to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 and the first European one to powering 10 per cent of its flights with sustainable aviation fuel by 2030. Iberia is the leading airline between Europe and Latin America, was one of the first members of oneworld and, alongside with Iberia Express and Iberia Regional Air Nostrum, offers flights to fifty countries from Madrid airport, where it has developed its hub. In addition to the airline business, its activity is diversified into air freight, aircraft maintenance, and airport handling services business.