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GULF Air, Bahrain’s national carrier, this week hosted media members on an exclusive tour of its newly-‘retrofitted’ Airbus A330 aircraft.
They have been upgraded with fully-flat bed seats in the airline’s Falcon Gold Class, revamped seats in Economy Class and a state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system throughout.
Designed specifically for Gulf Air and integrating various elements of passengers’ feedback, the work was launched on four Airbus A330s at the start of last year, with three key partners – Avianor, Zodiac Aerospace and BEAerospace.
Newly-configured for a total of 214 seats in a two-class configuration of 30 Falcon Gold Class seats and 184 Economy seats, the retrofit delivers significant enhancements across both cabins.
For premium passengers, the new 22-inch wide Falcon Gold Class seats convert into fully-flat beds measuring 1.90 metres in length and come equipped with an in-seat massage facility, privacy dividers, fully adjustable armrests and significant storage space.
The new Economy Class seats offer passengers the latest in comfort and technology with a greater recline to compliment an 18-inch seat-width and an adjustable head and foot rest to expand leg space.
For optimum onboard entertainment, all seats in Gulf Air’s upgraded A330 aircraft include an integrated Audio-Video on Demand (AVOD) feature, an individual touch screen (15-inch in Falcon Gold class and 9-inch in Economy) in every seat and high quality, noise-cancelling headphones.
A suite of movies, video and audio titles in several languages are on offer, in addition to games.
Gulf Air acting chief executive officer Maher Salman Al Musallam said at yesterday’s briefing: “This successful retrofit represents the fruits of Gulf Air’s ambitious and comprehensive product enhancement strategy that is geared towards enhancing, improving and standardising our product in a way that will deliver positive impact to our passengers.
“Fitting this upgraded equipment to our A330 fleet enhances the onboard experience while reflecting our ongoing commitment to our long-haul operations. I look forward to receiving our valued passengers’ feedback!”
The newly-styled airplanes will mainly service Gulf Air’s London Heathrow T4 and Bangkok routes which are served with non-stop twice daily and six weekly flights respectively.
At the time of going to press the cost of fitting the upgraded equipment was not known, although industry insiders suggest it was a ‘substantial investment’ and necessary in a highly-competitive marketplace.
The airline has struggled in recent years but restructuring and tough management decisions have been made in recent times and confidence once again appears to be high with network expansion and industry analysts forecasting enormous fuel savings in 2015.
Gulf Air currently operates an all-Airbus fleet with 28 modern aircraft that hold a combined average age of six years. The airline says its meld of wide and narrow body aircraft enable it to meet demand for its extensive regional network and strategic long-haul routes.
Gulf Air commenced operations in 1950, becoming one of the first commercial airlines established in the Middle East. Today, it serves 43 cities in 24 countries spanning three continents. The airline operates one of the largest networks in the Middle East, with double daily flights to more than 10 regional cities, from its hub at Bahrain International Airport.
