We know that Air India is currently undergoing a major transformation, after being privatized. This includes ordering hundreds of new planes, and trying to greatly improve the passenger experience.
As you might expect, this is no small project, both given the state of Air India’s legacy fleet, plus the general industry constraints (delays with aircraft deliveries, new seats, etc.).
As I recently covered, nearly four years after being privatized, Air India has finally started the process of reconfiguring its long haul jets with new interiors. However, it’s not necessarily the product you might have expected.
In this post:
Air India selects Adient Ascent seat for Boeing 787-8s
Several weeks ago, Air India’s first Boeing 787-8 began to be retrofitted, and the first interior picture of the new plane has now been revealed, and can be seen below.
This plane has gone from having business class seats in a 2-2-2 configuration, to having business class suites in a 1-2-1 configuration, meaning there’s finally direct aisle access from every seat.
Specifically, it would appear that Air India has selected the Adient Ascent seat for its 787-8 fleet. This product is built as part of a joint venture between Adient and Boeing, so it’s specifically designed for the 787. That’s why you’ll also find this seat on the newest Boeing 787-9s of Qatar Airways, Hawaiian Airlines, and American Airlines, and soon it’ll also be debuting on United Airlines.
It would appear that Air India has opted for 20 business class seats, spread across five rows, taking up the entire space between the first and second set of rows. We should learn more details soon, but these are typical reverse herringbone seats with privacy doors and greatly updated tech. 787-8s are also getting Wi-Fi, plus greatly updated entertainment systems.
Note that only 787-8s are expected to get these cabins, while Air India’s ex-Vistara 787-9s will maintain the “bones” of their cabins, at least for the foreseeable future (which is fair enough, because the seats are still pretty competitive). The first of these refreshed 787-8s is expected to enter service in February 2026.
This is not Air India’s new “flagship” business class
Interestingly, the new cabins being installed on Air India’s Boeing 787-8s aren’t actually the new business class seats that Air India has been promoting in recent years, which are expected to be retrofitted on Boeing 777s and installed on newly delivered Airbus A350s.
The Star Alliance carrier has selected the Safran Unity product as its primary new business class seat, which is the same product you’ll find in Japan Airlines’ A350 business class, and I’d rank that as being among the best business class seats in the world.
So, why isn’t Air India installing Safran Unity seats on its Boeing 787s? As I understand it, the initial plan was for the 787s to get these seats, but due to supply chain issues and manufacturing constraints, the airline ended up having to go with another manufacturer, in order to not delay things too much further.
So we’ll see how this plays out, but I believe the plan is for the 787-8s to get the Adient Ascent seats, while all the newly delivered planes will get the Safran Unity seats (I’m not 100% sure about the newly delivered 787-9s — if I missed an official announcement there, please let me know!).
Bottom line
Air India’s new Boeing 787-8 business class has finally been revealed, and the airline has opted for the Adient Ascent seat, which is becoming increasingly common on the 787. Passengers can look forward to fully flat beds with privacy doors and direct aisle access, a huge improvement over Air India’s previous 787-8 business class. However, this isn’t the Safran Unity seat that Air India otherwise plans to install on its wide body aircraft.
What do you make of Air India’s new Dreamliner business class?
Looks sick! Now AA’s gotta install these seats on their 788 fleet
Looks decent enough but to paraphrase Glinda - think of it as mediocrity dialysis, Air India, and you’ve got an awfully long way to go!
Ben, Adient Aerospace was rebranded as "Elevate Aircraft Seating" in April 30.
So it's "Elevate Ascent," not "Adient Ascent" anymore.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevate-seats
Also, don't expect their Safran Unity seat to be as good as JAL's which is pitched at 51". The Unity seat on JAL is so heavily customized that it's almost a different product. Unity on all the other airlines(Air India, Qantas, etc.) will be pitched around 46", which is 5" shorter than JAL's.