France’s Thales has won the contract to provide inflight entertainment system on 39 new aircraft on order by Bahrain’s Gulf Air.

Thales offered two options for the contract, priced at $65.7m and $85.9m, respectively.

The announcement, made by the French firm at the Farnborough Airshow in the UK, did not specify which option was chosen by Gulf Air.

The other bidders were Panasonic Avionics, which made an offer of $150.5m for the contract, and Zodiac Inflight Aviation, which offered $30m.

Gulf Air restructured its $7.6bn aircraft order with France’s Airbus and the US’ Boeing in January.

Thales’ AVANT systems will be deployed across 39 of the 45 aircraft on order. The Boeing 787-900 and A320 Neo fleet delivery will start in 2018, while the A321 Neo delivery will start in 2020.

Gulf Air recently reported cutting its losses by 62 per cent, to BD24.1m $63m, for the full year of 2016.

The reduction in annual losses and debt is a direct result of the airline’s restructuring strategy, launched in 2012 when annual losses stood at a high of BD196m.