Airbus and Finnair complete large-scale A330 & A350 widebody cabin upgrade

Finnair has completed a major cabin retrofit programme for its entire widebody fleet of eight A330 and 17 A350s in cooperation with Airbus and other suppliers, upgrading its entire long-haul fleet with harmonised interiors featuring innovative new seats in Business Class, an entirely new travel class Premium Economy and a completely refreshed Economy classes.

Throughout the mission, which started more than four years ago, Airbus worked as the integrator, providing the technical solution for Finnair’s cabin modification, managed as a single project for the customer. This included provision of all the Service Bulletins (SBs), engineering drawings, the kits required for the complete cabin and technical support during development of the solution at HAECO’s MRO facilities in Hong Kong.

Airbus also supported Finnair with the procurement of the seats and cabin monuments with various suppliers and using synergies by developing seats in parallel for A350 and A330. The project included simultaneous development and certification of line-fit and retrofit solutions on the A350 and A330 aircraft families. During the actual embodiment phase, Airbus provided on-site expertise and support for Finnair to guide their first shipset implementation.

The new Business Class in both aircraft families features the ‘AirLounge’ seat created by Collins Aerospace. Meanwhile, the new Premium Economy Class includes the new ‘Vector Premium’ seat, manufactured by HAECO Cabin Solutions (now part of ZIM Aircraft Seating). The Economy Class for Finnair’s A330s have been fitted with new seats. Meanwhile, the Economy Class cabins of its in-service A350s received new seat covers and an updated IFE. In addition, the main entrance for all cabin classes now features a new welcome entrance area, which includes a refreshment bar.

“This 200 million investment in travel comfort highlights our commitment to provide a consistent, elevated customer experience across our entire long-haul fleet. We are proud of the innovation, commitment and dedication Airbus and our partners have shown throughout this project”, says Eerika Enne, Head of Inflight Customer Experience at Finnair.