Gulf Air reveals B789 configuration

Gulf Air has officially revealed details of its cabin layout of its soon to be delivered brand new Boeing 787-9s which are as follows:

1. A total of 282 seats will be installed on board across 2 cabin classes i.e. 26 business + 256 economy

2. First batch of 10 B789s will be delivered between 2018-20 i.e. 5 in 2018 + 2 in 2019 and 3 in 2020. The remaining 6 are scheduled to be delivered in 2023-24.

The first route for these planes is expected to be BAH-LHR-BAH as that is the tradition considering that these planes will also have a brand new business class seat product. By 2020 it is expected that the 10 delivered B789s would have fully replaced the current 6 A332s with the incremental aircraft used to expand capacity in high demand markets.

In addition to the above, it has been noted (as per the news link below) that GF changed its A321NEO order slightly i.e. out of the 17 A321NEOs ordered, 8 of these will be the LR version which means they are going to be ear marked to expand Europe capacity along with having flat bed business class seats (which all their current 6 A321s + 4 A320s have)

Source: https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/55557-gulf-air-confirms-maiden-b787-9-due-in-early-2q18

Comments:

This is a well thought out configuration as the number of seats i.e. 282 adequately caters for growth across all its currently operated A332 routes into the 2020-30 decade period. GF's A332s seat 214 pax in a 2 class layout so the B789s with 282 represent a 32% increase in pax capacity as well as the capability to uplift an additional 3-4 tons of cargo in the belly. It shall definitely come in handy during peak travel periods across the network as well as for high demand religious season flights to JED/NJF.