Early update for schedule

Encouraged by the strong passenger growth witnessed across the network during the summer 2012 season, Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air has brought forward its winter schedule.

The timetable, now beginning on September 10, comes with a range of new features offering more flights between Bahrain and key GCC, MENA and Asian destinations and upgrading fleet to certain destinations to add more capacity.

The airline has also modified its flight timings on certain routes to try to avoid winter weather disruptions that may cause delays.

Gulf Air chief commercial officer Karim Makhlouf said: “Following the encouraging passenger growth we witnessed during the summer, we foresee the demand to continue through the winter. Therefore, we have decided to bring forward our winter schedule that usually begins in late October by adding more frequencies and capacity on several routes to facilitate our customers with better and more convenient travel options.

“Our leadership position in the Middle East is further strengthened in this schedule with additional frequencies and more capacity while the Asian sector will also see more flights to meet the seasonal demand.

“We are encouraged by the strong support from our customers for whom we are a carrier of choice as we offer one of the youngest fleet with an average age of just 4.7 years, the best network of destinations, excellent connectivity to different market segments, consistent and high quality products, state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment including the world’s first live TV, broadband internet and mobile phone services on long haul routes, and above all, real value-for-money to our customers.”

The winter schedule highlights include seven more flights to Dubai and Kuwait.

A new daily midday flight departing at 2pm from Bahrain to Dubai has been added, making a total of 63 flights per week.

Flights to Kuwait have been increased from 42 to 49 per week with the addition of a daily morning flight departing Bahrain at 7.35am. This new flight connects passengers arriving from London, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Istanbul and Delhi within one hour to travel to Kuwait. The return flight allows convenient connections to Sanaa, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Beirut, Khartoum and Kabul.

The winter schedule also includes three additional flights to Amman, Jordan’s capital. The frequency has increased from 11 to 14 flights per week.

With two daily flights departing morning and evening, the schedule offers excellent flexibility and flight choice for passengers from both Bahrain and Amman, the airline says.

There are four new frequencies to Beirut, which will see its weekly flights increased from seven to 11 with the additional flights departing Bahrain at 5.50pm. The return flights from Beirut provide convenient onward connections to the GCC capitals, Jeddah, Dammam, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Karachi, Manila, Addis Ababa and Khartoum via Bahrain.

The winter schedule also boats five additional flights to Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. The frequency has been increased from six to 11 per week with one new flight departing Bahrain early morning while four flights leave at 11.15am. The new flights provide good connectivity to Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, and Asia via Bahrain both ways, the airline added. Passengers from the GCC and Saudi Arabia will particularly benefit from the additional flights as they offer flexibility and more flight choices, executives believe.

There will be additional seat capacity to Cairo. Services to the Egyptian capital have been strengthened by introducing a combination of wide body A330 and larger capacity brand new A321 aircraft to accommodate more passengers.

Meanwhile, there are increased flights to Asian destinations. Flights to Dhaka, Kathmandu, and Colombo have been increased to meet the seasonal demand. All three capital cities will see an increase of seven flights in total per week.

Flights to two European destinations, Frankfurt and Istanbul, have also been increased by one each for the winter season to meet the growing demand.