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Gulf Air passes with flying colours

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The Falcon Gold Class seats on Bahrain’s national airline

WITH the delivery of the last of the six retrofitted A330s in its fleet last month (scheduled for mid-October), Gulf Air has completed the first stage of an ongoing initiative to ensure customer comfort and satisfaction and offer a best-in-class product.

Following the upgrade, each aircraft now has a total of 214 seats in a two-class configuration of 30 Falcon Gold and 184 Economy class seats and includes a number of significant enhancements based on passenger feedback.

The revamped A330s, used primarily on the London and Bangkok routes, introduce fully-flat bed seats in the Falcon Gold Class, upgraded seats in Economy Class and a state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system.

The strategy is already paying off, with business from the UK sector up 20 to 25 per cent on last year, according to Rashid Al Gaoud, country manager UK, Gulf Air.

“We have exceeded our revenue targets for London this year,” he tells TTN in an exclusive interview in London. “It’s been a very, very strong year for us and customers are very happy. We have attracted a lot of business and leisure travellers as well as Hajj and Umrah traffic from the UK. We are also working closely with the Bahrain embassy in London.”

Al Gaoud indicates that UK travel agents are “very pleased” with the upgrade, and “they feel the airline has been revitalised”.

“The feedback has been terrific,” he continues. “It is not just the seats, it is the fresh look of the aircraft and the onboard product. The Economy Class is more spacious and the inflight entertainment system has been updated while the inflight catering is improved. The new seats are also beneficial to us as they are lighter and hence more environment-friendly. We now have one of the best Economy classes in the industry.”

The project is part of an aggressive e-fleeting and product enhancement strategy launched by the national carrier of Bahrain three years ago. Gulf Air says its fleet today is one of the youngest in the region with an average age of 5.9 years.

KEY PARTNERS

The airline’s A330 retrofit was supported by three key partners: Avianor served as the “turn-key provider” managing the programme with responsibility for the engineering, certification and installation of the upgrade, Zodiac Aerospace supplied the Economy Class seats and the inflight entertainment system, while BE Aerospace supplied the Falcon Gold Class seats.

The lounge at Heathrow International Airport in London

The new Falcon Gold seats convert into fully flat beds measuring 1.9 m in length, and feature more personal space between seats than the airline’s previous business class, allowing passengers to relax in 22-inch-wide armchairs that can be adjusted to suit their desired position. Another feature that comes as a surprise is a gentle in-seat massage facility offering yet another way to relax on a long flight.

Equipped with complete audio-video on demand (AVOD) features, each seat comes with an individual 15-inch touch screen and high-quality noise-cancelling headphones providing access to a suite of movies, video and audio titles in several languages, in addition to games. A USB port is available in every seat to allow passengers to easily charge electronic devices during their flight.

The A330’s Economy Class seats have also been upgraded to feature a four-inch recline, an 18-inch seat-width, adjustable head and foot rests and nine-inch seat-back video monitors.

Gulf Air – which has been ranked first among the Middle East’s full service carriers for on-time punctuality in 2013, having achieved a 93 per cent on-time performance during the year – is looking at adding further services to enhance passenger comfort, Al Gaoud adds.

“We are ensuring our prices are in line with the market – if not better – and we offer a better product. We are also strengthening our ties with travel agents in the UK.

“Gulf Air will also be shortly launching a ‘real’ discount scheme for Bahraini students studying in the UK and registered with the Bahrain embassy,” he adds.

This apart, the London office is promoting Bahrain as a tourism destination and is working with travel partners in the UK to offer competitive packages.

Gulf Air is also well-positioned to tap into the appeal of Bangkok which is one of the biggest leisure destinations from the UK.  As from last month (October), the airline now has six connecting flights weekly to the Thai capital from Bahrain.

REVAMPED LOUNGES

Meanwhile, the overhaul of the Falcon Gold product has extended to its facilities for premium passengers on the ground with revamped lounges at Bahrain International Airport and at Terminal Four of Heathrow International Airport in London.

The 1,720-sq-m lounge Gulf Air Falcon Gold Lounge in Bahrain, which can accommodate up to 200 people, combines a traditional Arabian theme with modern amenities giving guests a sense of space. The lounge features well laid-out business, dining, lounging facilities and TV areas in addition to offering panoramic views of the runway.

Among the highlights is a “Quiet Lounge”, which holds seven private sleeping rooms featuring comfortable beds, dimming lights, and hi-definition TVs with wireless headphones.

The lounge includes a cigar room and shower rooms with luxury brand toiletries and amenities as well as separate prayer rooms and lockers.

Passengers can stay connected with free wi-fi, discreet power sockets at every seat and a business centre that includes PCs, fax machines and printers.

A feature that is sure to appeal to families with young, restless children is a spacious family room with professional Sky Nannies in attendance as well as a gaming room equipped with Xbox and PlayStation units.

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.

On arrival at London Heathrow airport, premium class passengers can avail of the Fast Track service, which eliminates the hassle of negotiating long queues at Immigration.

FFP members and premium passengers flying out of London Heathrow, meanwhile, can relax at Gulf Air’s 6,500-sq-ft Falcon Gold lounge. One of the largest in the terminal, it seamlessly combines contemporary design and architecture with Arabic influences, creating an environment that combines tranquillity with extensive modern-day business facilities.

The open-plan design of the lounge gives a sense of space with the central area featuring a bar surrounded by well laid-out business, dining, lounging facilities, TV areas and private rooms. The lounge, which overlooks the runway and apron through a four-m-high glass wall, has a business centre, free wi-fi, a self-service buffet, prayer room, washrooms and showers, two private family rooms that can be combined to one large room and an Illy Café counter serving a select variety of Italian coffee blends.

Open from 6 am to 10.30 pm daily, the lounge can accommodate up to 110 persons.

Gulf Air’s commitment to its passengers is not limited to comfort and food as a recent award for its inflight publication indicates. The airline was recently honoured at this year’s Airline Passenger Experience Association (Apex) Passenger Choice Awards ceremony in California, US, where it secured the John White Publication Award for best inflight publication.

Senior manager inflight and product Mohamad El Assaad comments: “The Gulf Air inflight publication, GulfLife, is a tool to help enhance our passengers’ on-board comfort, giving them information about various destinations across our network, in addition to updates about our airline – thereby further meeting passenger needs while at 30,000 ft.”

By Bina Goveas

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