Lufthansa will install new business seats on its Airbus A380s and refurbish the entire cabins of its A350s and Boeing 747-8s. Starting in February, the Star Alliance carrier's eight A380s will be retrofitted at EFW in German city Dresden, with work on its 747-8s and A350-900s following "in close succession", the airline says. Following the refit, Lufthansa’s A380 will feature 68 instead of currently 78 business seats, along with eight in first, 52 in premium economy and 371 in standard coach. The number of seats in first, premium and standard economy will remain unchanged after the upgrade. "The retrofit underscores our commitment to providing a top flight experience on the long-haul aircraft that is so popular with our customers," states Heiko Reitz, Lufthansa's hub manager in Munich. In addition to the retrofit, routine maintenance work will also be carried out on the A380s. The first aircraft is scheduled to return to Munich in April. By mid-2027, all eight A380s are scheduled to be retrofitted. Lufthansa has 31 A350-900s in service and another 18 of the variant and 15 A350-1000s on order, Cirium fleets data shows. The carrier will have 17 747-8s following the sale of two aircraft to the US Air Force, disclosed in December, for the future presidential transport programme. Last October, Lufthansa said it planned to keep its A380s in operation until at least 2030, with chief executive Carsten Spohr describing the superjumbo as a "great aircraft" for high-season summer routes when tickets sell out. "Customers love it, and our crews love it," he said. Amid the Covid crisis, Lufthansa mothballed its A380 fleet of 14 aircraft at the time and accelerated a plan to retire six of the jets. High operating costs have been cited as a factor in decisions to retire A380s, though some such pandemic-era moves have been reversed amid resurgent demand and shortage of new widebodies. The data lists 180 A380s in service today, down from 234 at the end of 2019. Twenty-five are in storage.

ATR expects that India will require 210 new turboprops by 2044 to meet the growing demand for routes under 400nm that are underserved by aviation. The manufacturer released a white paper at the Wings India air show in Hyderabad using its 'MobilityMonitor' platform, which finds that around 90% of intercity journeys in the country are of 400nm or less, with only 3% of those conducted by air. That puts it significantly behind more mature markets such as China and the United States. But with the planned development towards having 230 airports operating around India by 2030, there is potential for up to 900 new domestic routes, "of which 420 fall squarely into turboprop territory" due to more favourable fuel burn and right-sized capacity compared to regional jets. “With a need for affordable air travel, and fuel costs set to increase, turboprops are the only economically viable solution to scale regional connectivity profitably,” says ATR's senior vice president commercial Alexis Vidal. He adds that the tier II and III cities in the countries will drive the next phase of aviation growth in the country, largely by displacing other modes of transport. "It is demand that already exists, but is largely tapped today by road and rail," he says. "Our analysis shows that this growth cannot be sustainably unlocked without turboprops." Fleets data shows that there are 87 regional turboprops in commercial service and storage in India, with ATR accounting for 69 of those. There are only two more on order for regional carrier Fly91, which are to be leased from DAE Capital. IndiGo is the largest turboprop operator in the country with 46 ATR 72-600s in its fleet, followed by SpiceJet with 24 De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400s, government-owned Alliance Air with 20 ATRs and one Hindustan Aeronautics Do228 while Fly91 has three ATR 72s in service.

Air India has ordered another 30 Boeing 737 Max aircraft and converted 15 Airbus A321neo orders to the extra long-range variant. The new Boeing orders brings its total outstanding commitment to the US airframer to 198 jets. Air India says the new deal comprises 20 Max 8s and 10 Max 10s, the largest Max variant. It follows on from a 220-strong order for Boeing aircraft agreed in 2023, split between 190 737 Max jets, 20 787s and 10 777X aircraft. A total of 52 of these – 51 Max 8s and one 787-9 – have already been delivered, with the narrowbodies being allocated to the Air India Express low-cost subsidiary. "This additional order is part of our broader fleet strategy to position Air India firmly for the future," says chief executive Campbell Wilson. "It supports the steady deliveries and fleet upgrades planned over the next few years as we build the world-class global carrier that India deserves." Paul Righi, Boeing vice-president of commercial sales for India, says the order "underscores the strong performance of their existing 737-8 fleet as they continue to expand connectivity across India and the South Asia region". In terms of its Airbus commitment, the Indian flag carrier says the A321neo conversions to the A321XLR form part of its orders placed with the European airframer in the 2023-24 period, comprising a total of 50 A350s and 300 A320neo-family jets. The conversion to A321XLR applies to 15 of 210 A321neo aircraft ordered, while the remaining 90 A320neos continue as originally structured. Deliveries of the 15 A321XLRs are scheduled for the 2029-30 period. An earlier version of the story has been updated with information about the A321XLR order conversion