Austrian Airlines has completed upgrading the cabins of its regional aircraft as the final phase of a fleet-wide interior revamp programme over the past three years.
Some 14 Bombardier Q400 turboprops, eight Fokker 70 and 15 Fokker 100 regional jets were refurbished. The use of leather seat covers was a central part of the programme aimed at aligning the aircraft’s cabins to the airline’s Airbus A320 fleet, the carrier says.
Austrian installed new, extra-slim seats on its A320s in 2011, after parent Lufthansa introduced the same seat type on its A320s and Boeing 737s to create more capacity on the European network. The seat allowed to install an additional seat row on A320s.
A year later, Austrian also introduced a new long-haul business class seat, which was installed on the airline's 767s and 777s in 2012 and 2013.
The airline’s chief commercial officer, Karsten Benz, hailed the new “elegant grey” colour scheme – which is in line with the German parent’s interior – as being up-to-date, while Austrian’s former “bright green is yesterday’s look”.
The cabins are being accentuated with easily replaceable items, such as seat belts and head covers, in bright red to highlight Austrian's identity. But the basic colour scheme has been aligned to Lufthansa to allow mutual aircraft deployment between group carriers without major changes.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
