AIRE (Aircraft Interior Refurbishment España), a Spain-based provider of cabin interiors engineering, production and maintenance services, has announced a collaboration with Wamos Air to modify and refurbish Stelia Aerospace seats for two A330s.
AIRE was awarded the project with the Spanish leisure carrier following a successful collaboration in 2018 for the refurbishment of B747 first-class seats for the airline, whereby AIRE developed a customised solution with the implementation of a new high-performance cushion and a soft leather, based on the feedback of first-class flyers and cabin design experts.
AIRE is now involved into a larger cabin modernisation project with Wamos Air to help provide a unique and high-class service for business class passengers on two A330s, which are joining its growing fleet during 2020.
The overall scope of work of the modification required several stakeholders to handle different aspects of the project, according to a master phasing plan agreed during ITCM (the Initial Technical Coordination Meeting). All the project milestones achieved by the players have been endorsed in an STC carried out by the Airbus Interiors Services team to certify the final configuration.
The project began with Wamos Air defining a business-class layout to accommodate the seats at a 44in pitch, which requires a modification of the seat plinth and the centre front row monument (FRM), carried out by AIRE’s Part 145 team. The work involves cutting part of the original structure of the composite monument, replacing it with a decorative plate, and removing the front seals and seal brackets from the centre FRM. The entire structure modification was undertaken according to instructions provided by Stelia Aerospace, to meet the Part 21J change of seat structure approval requirements.
AIRE’s Part 145 team, with the support of Airline Services Interiors as the Part 21J team providing the engineering order and relevant approvals, implemented the replacement of the IFE system from the pre-mod Panasonic system to a new Safran RAVE IFE system.
Aside from the Part 145 support on structural and IFE modifications, the AIRE team handled the seat refurbishments, painting them according to the trim & finish scheme specified by Wamos Air for the cabins. As a Part 21G company, AIRE also manufactured leather seat covers with a geometric diamond pattern to tie-in with the designs of the rest of the airline’s fleet.
AIRE’s Airworthiness and Design Office, as an EASA approved Part 21J company, undertook the relevant Service Bulletin to certify the painting of the new seats and the installation of the new covers.
All work was performed at AIRE’s facilities in Madrid, which saved tie for the airline and reduced the material exchange required between suppliers.
“This project gave us the opportunity to put in place all our capabilities as a Design, Production and Maintenance organization for cabin interiors requirements” stated Javier Camara, AIRE’s production director.
