Philippine Airlines has received its first Airbus A321 with retrofitted cabin products.
The aircraft – registered RP-C9905 – is the first of 18 A321ceos that will under cabin product upgrades, with retrofit works taking place at Lufthansa Technik Philippines’ facility in Manila.
The refurbished jets feature a two-class configuration of 194 seats, comprising 12 business-class and 182 economy-class seats. The new layout is five seats fewer than the existing configuration.
PAL has selected Collins Aerospace’s Pinnacle seats for economy class, which are manufactured in the Philippines at Collins’ factory in Batangas.
“The retrofit project is the first aircraft program done by any local airline utilising Filipino skilled workers for seat production and installation, and various aspects of cabin upgrading,” the airline states.
The first retrofitted A321ceo will be deployed on PAL flights from Manila to Tokyo, Osaka, Bali and Guam this year. Subsequent A321ceos will then be deployed to its short-haul network in Southeast Asia.
The cabin retrofit programme is expected to be completed in 2027, PAL states.
According to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium, PAL’s A321ceos are between nine and 12 years old, and are all powered by a pair of IAE V2500 engines.
