MANAMA: Gulf Air, the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national carrier, received its first retrofitted A330 aircraft at Bahrain International Airport, arriving from Canada. The plane is newly configured for a total of 214 seats in a two-class configuration of 30 Falcon Gold Class and 184 Economy seats with significant enhancements across both cabins.
The revampedA330 product introduces fully-flat bed seats in the airline’s Falcon Gold Class, upgraded seats in Economy Class and a state-of-the-art in-flight-entertainment system throughout, and was designed specifically for Gulf Air, integrating features based on passenger feedback.
Realised by three key partners:Avianor, Zodiac Aerospace and BE, the aircraft’s new Falcon Gold seats convert into fully-flat beds measuring 1.90 meters in length guaranteeing a comfortable night’s sleep. The Falcon Gold seats offer more personal space between seats than the airline’s previous A330 business class product, allowing passengers to sit back and relax in a 22-inch wide armchair that converts easily into the passenger’s desired position. The new Economy Class seats offer passengers the very latest in comfort: a greater reclines to compliment an 18-inch seat-width and an adjustable head and foot rest that allows greater passenger relaxation.
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 headphones. A suite of movies, video and audio titles in several languages are on offer, in addition to games. A USB port is available in every seat to allow passengers to easily charge electronic devices.
“This is an important milestone for Gulf Air as we continue to shape our new strategic direction, which sees us strive to transform and revitalize all facets of the national carrier’s operations while offering the best in class product,” Acting Chief Executive Officer Maher Salman Al Musallam, said.
“Today, we are delivering on our commitment to continually upgrade our product offering– strengthening our long haul operations with our retrofitted aircraft – in line with developments that saw us, in 2012, receive our newest narrow body aircraft (A321 and A320ER),” Al Musallam said upon receiving the aircraft in presence of members of the national carrier’s executive management team.
“Passengers travelling on our upgraded A330 aircraft, in both classes, will now have a more relaxing and enjoyable experience. This overhaul of our wide-body fleet demonstrates our ongoing commitment to offer superior products and services to our passengers and we look forward to receiving their valued feedback,” he added.
Gulf Air’s second retrofitted A330 is scheduled to arrive in early August while the carrier’s A330 fleet retrofit is scheduled to be completed by the last quarter of 2014. Gulf Air’s A330 aircraft are used primarily on London and Bangkok routes.