SilkAir, the regional arm of the Singapore Airlines’ (SIA) has now narrowed down on Thompson Aero Seating for the upgrade of Business Class seats on its Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet. The upgrades are a part of a significant investment programme that will eventually see SilkAir merged into SIA, top company officials said.

Top company officials said that the proposed upgrades will come through in the next one year, that is, in May 2020. The upgrades programme will include new lie-flat Business Class seats in a forward-facing staggered layout – in line with SIA’s regional Business Class offering on its Airbus A350-900 medium-haul and Boeing 787-10 fleets.

At present, SilkAir has five 737 MAX 8s in its fleet with another 32 currently on order. The new seats, according to company officials, will be retrofitted onto aircraft, which are already in the fleet. They will be installed at the time of arrival in Singapore for aircraft not yet delivered.

Plans for the upgrades were originally announced in May 2018, as part of a move to more closely align SilkAir’s products and services with those of SIA in preparation for its merger into SIA. The merger will eventually encompass a full re-branding of SilkAir as SIA, with repainting of aircraft and adoption of SIA’s service delivery.

Interestingly, the upgrades programme will also see the installation of new seat-back in-flight entertainment systems in both Business Class and Economy Class. An announcement on the supplier for these systems will be made soon, officials said.