Cabin interior provider AIRE (Aircraft Interior Refurbishment España) has announced a collaboration with Wamos Air to modify and refurbish Stelia Aerospace seats in business class for two of the airlines’ upcoming A330s.

AIRE’s involvement in the project has in part been driven by the successful collaboration that took place in 2018 on the refurbishment of the first-class seats onboard a B747, operated by Wamos Air.

In that project, AIRE developed a customised solution with the implementation of a new high-performance cushion and soft leather, based on the feedback of first-class flyers and cabin design experts.

Several stakeholders worked on different aspects of the current project within the framework of a proactive approach based on a master phasing plan agreed during the ITCM (Initial Technical Coordination Meeting). All the project milestones achieved by the interested parties have been endorsed in an STC (supplemental type certificate) provided to the Airbus Interiors Services team to certify the final configuration required by the airline.

“This project goes one step further towards solidifying even further the successful relationship between our companies, which has evolved over the past few years”, commented AIRE production director Javier Camara.

“Furthermore, this project gave us the opportunity to put in place all our capabilities as a design, production and maintenance organisation for cabin interior requirements.”

During the first stage of the project, Wamos Air defined the business class layout, which would accommodate a seat with a 44-inch pitch; this requirement led to the modification of the seat plinth and centre front row monument (FRM), carried out by the AIRE part 145 team.

Fitting the Stelia Aerospace seat involved cutting part of the composite monument in the original structure and replacing it with a decor plate, removing the front seals and seal brackets from the centre FRM.

The entire structure modification was undertaken under the instruction of Stelia Aerospace, the seat OEM and the part 21J team, which is in charge of the approval of seat structure changes.

Downstream of the plinth and centre FRM modification, the AIRE part 145 team implemented the replacement of the IFE system, updating it from a Panasonic system to the newer Safran RAVE IFE.

Besides the part 145 support on structure and IFE modifications, the AIRE team took care of the complete restoring and refurbishment of the seats, painting them according to the trim and finish prescribed by Wamos Air for its cabins and, as a part 21G company, manufacturing a fully leather seat cover featuring diamond geometry in order to standardise the design of the operator’s fleet.

All the work was carried out at AIRE’s facilities in Madrid, resulting in a considerable time saving, and avoiding the participation of too many suppliers, in compliance with its commitment to provide full cabin support, something that AIRE says it always strives to offer its customers.