Bahrain’s national carrier, Gulf Air’s Falcon Gold Lounge at Bahrain International Airport (BIA) seamlessly integrates contemporary design and architecture with Arabic influences.
The fully renovated lounge sports an open design giving a sense of space and freedom with generous and clever use of space, creating an environment that combines peace and tranquillity with extensive modern-day business and catering facilities. For the first time, premium passengers have the added facilities of seven private sleeping rooms, a cigar lounge and shower rooms with hotel-style towels and luxury brand toiletries and amenities.
Passengers can stay connected with free wi-fi throughout the lounge, discreet power sockets at every seat and a business centre that includes PCs, fax machines and printers. For families the lounge offers a spacious family room with highly trained professional SkyNannies in attendance as well as a gaming room equipped with Xbox and PlayStation units.
The lounge upgrade is in-line with the airline’s service and product enhancement strategy both in the air and on the ground including the company’s aircraft which are either new or have been refurbished. The current fleet age is 5.2 years, one of the youngest in the region.
Gulf Air chief executive officer Samer Majali says that the upgraded-lounge was a further example of the airline’s commitment to investing in its hub. He says: “Bahrain is our most important market so developing and improving our home-product is key. The new lounge is the latest in a series of service enhancements across our entire passenger value chain including the re-launch of our Sky Nanny Service, Sky Chef, online check in and a robust network connectivity in the Middle East.
“We believe in investing in our customers and, as we keep improving ourselves in our customer service on the ground, we will continue to add more features and facilities in the air as well, so that our premium customers enjoy a consistently enhanced experience throughout their journey,” he says.
Gulf Air chief services officer Marcus Bernhardt says: “The revamp of the Bahrain Falcon Gold Lounge is part of an extensive lounge-renovation programme across our network, which saw the inauguration last year of our new premium lounge in Terminal 4 at Heathrow International Airport in London, and will be preceded next year by the upgrading of our premium lounge in Dubai International Airport.”
The architectural design of the new 1,720 sq ft lounge offers Arabian ambience with its huge walls adorned with Bahraini paintings and murals and featuring well laid-out business, dining, lounging facilities and TV areas in addition to offering panoramic views of the runway through a high glass wall. The design concept has been inspired by Bahrain’s heritage as the Pearl of the Gulf, and its pearl harvesting tradition.
There are also separate prayer rooms and secure lockers for those who want to use these facilities. The private sleeping rooms boast comfortable beds with dimming light and the ‘do not disturb’ option to rest in complete privacy. The rooms are also equipped with hi definition TVs with wireless headphones.
The modern, self-service buffet area offers a wide variety of snacks and meals, including an Italian coffee corner offering the world famous Lavazza brand coffee varieties.
The lounge can accommodate up to 200 people and all Platinum, Gold and Silver card holding FFP members of Gulf Air, and premium class ticket holders of Gulf Air’s code-share partner airlines.
By K S Sreekumar