KLM renovates its 737-800 cabins

The good old 737 still has a bright future ahead of it, and is not about to retire. As proof of this, 14 of its 31 Boeing 737-800s are in the process of receiving a new cabin.

A lighter, greener cabin

According to the airline, new ergonomic seats in business and economy class will offer greater comfort and legroom. Note that we’ve never seen an airline announce that a new version of a cabin would provide less space, but in the end the passenger rarely sees the difference. So we’ll wait until we can fly to judge.

As is fashionable at the moment, KLM is emphasizing the “environment-friendly” aspect of the operation.

The covering is made mainly of recycled leather. Seats are on average 20% lighter, reducing total cabin weight by 700 kg and saving 58 tons of fuel and 184 tons of CO2 emissions per aircraft per year.

For all 14 aircraft, this represents an annual saving of 812 tonnes of fuel and a reduction of 2,576 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Wifi and more ports

All refurbished Boeing 737-800s are equipped with Wi-Fi, and passengers always benefit from 30 minutes of free messaging. Each seat has its own USB port for recharging devices during the flight.

A more functional cabin and a soothing atmosphere

Larger overhead compartments provide more on-board storage space. LED mood lighting creates a cool or soothing atmosphere, depending on the time of day.

Travelguys’ opinion

With Air France having embarked on an upmarket medium-haul cabin upgrade for its Airbus aircraft several years ago, KLM couldn’t stay on the sidelines any longer, and the cabin of its 737s, while appreciating the legroom compared to its French sister, was beginning to look dated.

After that, this design, while quite successful and giving a more premium look with, as at Air France recently and as we’ve seen at Lufthansa and Swiss for a long time, the adoption of leather, is nothing revolutionary. It is in line with what we now see on KLM’s long-haul fleet, and finally brings some visual coherence between medium- and long-haul products.

As for WiFi and USB ports, it’s the least we can expect from an airline worthy of the name in 2021.

On the other hand, as much as we applauded the speed with which KLM “retrofitted” its long-haul fleet compared with Air France several years ago, medium-haul is lagging behind. 14 aircraft out of the 31 737-800s, with the rest to follow in March 2022, is a long, long time. On the other hand, the crisis must have had an impact.

We’re guessing that the 5 B737-900s will have to wait a while, and that the 15 B737-700s will no doubt wait until they’re ready for retirement, without receiving a final facelift.

Image :claffra/istockphoto