Bahrain Airshow: Gulf Air announces deal to refurbish its long-haul Airbus A330s

Gulf Air announced a deal worth approximately $20 million to refurbish its long-haul Airbus A330s.
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Under the deal, business-class passengers in the Falcon Gold cabin will have new fully flat bed, 1.9 metre-long seats from BE Aerospace, plus a state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment (IFE) system with a 15-inch touch-screen and audio-visual on demand. 

The seats will have a USB slot to charge personal electronic equipment. There will also be more personal space between them. 

Zodiac Seats will provide the new economy-class seats and IFE with nine-inch screens – the first time this pre-certified combination of seats and IFE has been used. A new-generation slim seat design will give passengers an extra inch of leg room, compared to the current 32/33-inch seat pitch. 

Avianor will handle the engineering contract for the refurbishment. The first A330 will enter the refurbishment process in June, with 40 days – hopefully reducing to 30 – allotted for the work. Three further aircraft will follow, with the aim being to reduce the refitting process to two weeks. The target is to have at least two aircraft completed in time for the busy summer holiday period. 

The first four aircraft will operate on Gulf Air’s premium routes to London, Bangkok and Manila.

The remaining two A330s went through a recent ‘soft refurbishment’, which did not involve changing the cabin monuments. They may get the full refit at a later date. 

The aim of the project, said the airline’s acting CEO, Maher Salman Al Musallam, was to “at least match our competitors” in terms of passenger facilities.