Viva: first Latin American airline to retrofit A320 Family aircraft with L bins

In 2025, Viva will become the first airline in Latin America to take delivery of the retrofit of A320 Family cabins with Airspace L bins. 52 aircraft will be retrofitted with the new bins, which will provide 60% more bag capacity than the previous-generation bins. The decision from Viva to retrofit its A320 Family cabins with L bins will undoubtedly improve its passenger experience.

The new Airspace L bins will allow vertical loading of carry-on roller bags, which means three extra bags per bin, creating a better experience for customers and crew when boarding and deplaning without affecting the comfort of the cabin. With this retrofit the airline also aims to increase the on-time performance due to the faster turnaround time provided by the new L bins in their existing A320 Family fleet. 

The L bins are designed to be retrofitted in three to five days which is Airbus’ fastest and most cost effective A320 retrofit solution. This results in less aircraft downtime for the airline since the L bin re-uses many parts of the original bin including the sidewall, ceiling and lighting. The bins, made of ultra-lightweight and highly stable composite products, will be manufactured by EFW (Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH).

Viva and Airbus teams during the Initial Technical Coordination Meeting at the Airbus Mobile Engineering Centre. 

Viva has based its fleet renewal strategy on the A320 Family. In 2013, the airline placed an order for 52 A320 Family aircraft, the largest Airbus aircraft order placed by a single airline in Mexico at the time. In 2018, Viva ordered 25 A321neo aircraft. To date, Viva operates 86 A320 Family aircraft.