Air France has revealed the final design of the new seat to retrofit its fleet of 23 Embraer 190 regional jets aircraft, an industry-leading lightweight product defined by the carrier’s senior vice president of customer experience Fabien Pelous as having “no equivalent on the market”.
It marks the French national carrier’s first collaboration with manufacturer Expliseat.
Slated for retrofit across Air France’s regional fleet of 23 E190s, the new TiSeat 2X is part of a €20 million ($22 million) upgrade initiative which will also see the total of seats raised from 100 to 110.
The first aircraft to undergo the retrofit has already been delivered and is expected to start flying later this year, with all units to be completed by summer 2025.
Featuring black leather-covered foam, Air France’s signature red accent and a white seatback, the new seat “reaches Air France’s expectation for a very comfortable and very beautiful seat” says Pelous, adding that “details make a difference”. A 29 degree angle of recline will be available as standard, along with an extra inch of personal space as compared to the E190’s existing arrangement.
Crucially, the “robust and very light” 2X is 30% lighter than the existin seat, weighing just 18lb (8kg) in its baseline configuration. Even with Air France’s optional extras such as charging points, the airline says it still places its overall weight in an industry-leading position.
The low weight was a “driving factor” in Air France’s decision to partner with Expliseat, continues Pelous, adding that the synergy with a French company was also a significant factor. Expliseat will produce the product at its new factory in Angers.
This collaboration represents “a symbiosis of innovation, comfort and sustainability,” says Expliseat, which currently has more than 12 thousand seats in service today.
From January 2025, Air France will also operating a business class option aboard its newly-retrofitted E190s, using an ‘empty adjacent seat’ strategy; able to accommodate up to 20 business class passengers per flight (dependent on demand).
