Originally Posted by jetfan
I heard that they are allocating a separate hangar to the MD-11 retrofit and in fact that the effective MD-11 deployment is well under 9 frames for the entire season.
Could that be an indication of a major retro-fit including AVOD in Y-class?
Ripping out the 31 C-clss seats, replacing them 24 new ones and installing only LCD overhead monitors in Y for the 10 aircraft surely cannot take a full season?
The MD11 utilization is currently just under 9 frames and that will reduce further in a week or two as the newly arrived A332 will take over the MD11 AMS YVR route and the MD11 won't be deployed elsewhere in the network.
As the entire MD11 fleet seems to have gone through a D-check recently, I presume that the cabin retrofit will take place starting August and at a fast pace. After all the schedule from August to October will require just 8 active frames. They might very well be able to have quite a few done by the start of the winter schedule.
I hear that only the WBC cabin will get the AVOD installed, whereas the Y cabin will get new overhead flat screens. As for the seats, again only WBC is to get new seats, whereas Y will just get new seat covers, apart from the addition of 2 extra rows. As such, the retrofit should not take much time, unlike for the B747 fleet where the process will take over 2 years as it is taken care of during a D-check, which typically takes 6 to 8 weeks to complete.