US Airways is opting not to feature its new Envoy seat on initial Airbus A330-200 deliveries after determining more testing for the developmental seats is required.
The carrier earlier this year disclosed it was launching the James Park Associates-designed Cirrus seat featuring a unique reverse herringbone design.
Responding to a question from an employee about the delay in equipping the A330 fleet with the new seats US Airways management says: "Although we pushed hard to meet the delivery of our first A330-200, it became clear over time that additional testing was required."
US Airways is due to take delivery of five A330-200s this year as part of an order for 22 of the type. Flightglobal's ACAS database shows the carrier currently operates three of the type.
"To protect the delivery schedule of our first few A330-200s--and provide our customers with a quality product on an interim basis - we used the same seat type found on our A330-300 fleet," the carrier explains.
But the fourth A330 scheduled for delivery in November should be the first aircraft to feature the new seats, the carrier says. The first two A330-200s already delivered should be retrofitted with the new seats starting in January.
"We're holding off retrofitting our third and fifth A330-200 until fall 2010 when the European flying season ends," says US Airways. The A330-300s will not be retrofitted until later due to additional development work necessary to fit seats to the aircraft's different size and shape.
US Airways expects to complete Envoy seat installations on the A330-200 fleet by summer 2011 and the A330-300 fleet by summer 2012. The carrier notes the schedule for installation on the -300s is subject to change.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
