GULF AIR last month received its first retrofitted A330 aircraft at Bahrain International Airport, which arrived 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 revamped A330 introduces fully-flat-bed seats in the airline’s Falcon Gold Class, upgraded seats in Economy Class and a state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system throughout.Realised by three partners, Avianor, Zodiac Aerospace and BE, the new Falcon Gold seats convert into fully flat beds measuring 1.90 m in length. 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. The new Economy Class seats offer a greater recline to complement an 18-inch seat-width and an adjustable head and foot rest.All seats in Gulf Air’s upgraded A330 aircraft include an integrated audio-video on demand (AVOD) feature, an individual touch-screen 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. Acting chief executive officer Maher Salman Al Musallam commented: “This is an important milestone for Gulf Air as we continue to shape our new strategic direction, which sees us strive to transform and revitalise all facets of the national carrier’s operations while offering the best-in-class product. 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 narrowbody aircraft (A321 and A320ER).”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.