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German race fans will be flocking to Bahrain for the Grand Prix jamboree in record numbers to show their support to world champion Sebastian Vettel.
Lufthansa German Airlines is reporting a ‘significant increase’ in bookings even at this early stage as F1 fever grips the country before the Formula One season kicks off on March 17.
National carrier, Gulf Air, the event’s main sponsors, have also witnessed a ‘hike’ in demand for seats.
The Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) will play host to the fourth race of the season on April 21 and the kingdom is ideally placed for travelling German fans compared to the first three staged in far-off Australia, Malaysia and China.
According to Schaher Murad, the airline’s regional manager for Bahrain and Eastern Province, KSA, interest over the grand prix here has been staggering. “The current booking numbers are about 15 per cent more than last year and the numbers are still growing, thus we are looking forward to bringing in quite a few more people than last year.”
Even recent anti-government demonstrations in the kingdom, covered extensively in the Western media, do not appear to have put a dampener on the race’s pulling power.
“We are delighted to see an early increase of demand on the Lufthansa flights for this year’s Bahrain F1 and our planning started on the same day the race date was fixed,” said Mr Murad.
“We trust that the passengers made their judgement to come to Bahrain not only based on Western media coverage of Bahrain but also on local assessments and feedback which are, so far, encouraging.
“We are seeing good numbers of bookings for the F1 flights both inbound before and outbound after the event.”
Mr Murad continued: “We are carefully monitoring these flights to support our clients and the involved travel agents in maximising the number of confirmations, while still having seats available for sale.
“The bookings we are seeing right now can be categorised in two: a) customers booked more or less for the race weekend itself, which we believe are the fans and teams, and, b) customers who have booked days or even weeks earlier which include those involved in the planning and technical aspects of the race who have much to do in the preparation work involved in staging such a mega event.
“It’s interesting to note that in these numbers are sub-contractors involved in all the services related to the F1 which we believe will help all companies working in Bahrain to see refreshing increases in their businesses.”
It takes passengers around seven hours to fly from Frankfurt to Bahrain, via Doha, with Lufthansa and six hours direct with race-sponsor Gulf Air. F1’s popularity should also boost the national carrier’s endeavours to turn around its financial fortunes.
Gulf Air’s acting chief executive officer Maher Salman Al Musallam said: “We have witnessed a positive hike in sales for the 2013 Formula 1 Bahrain Gulf Air Grand Prix.
“For yet another year, the kingdom will accommodate a large number of motorsport fans from all over the world, and the national carrier is proud to welcome many of these passengers onboard its flights.
“It is an exciting time for the kingdom and Gulf Air as we look forward to hosting for the ninth time this great annual event that has put the country on the global map as the ‘home of motorsport in the Middle East’.”
Although Formula One boasts a massive global fan base, the Germans are amongst the sport’s most ardent followers, not surprisingly since their hero Vettel has won the drivers’ championship three-times-in-a-row for Infiniti Red Bull Racing.
He follows in the footsteps of another legendary driver, recently-retired Michael Schumacher, who won the very first Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, wearing the colours of Ferrari, in 2004.
“Germany is home to the best driver in the world, therefore Germans love cars more than anything else,” boasted Mr Murad. “Germany, in the past, has even hosted two F1 Grand Prix events and is one of the countries with the highest number of TV viewers.
“Vettel is very popular, especially since he was the youngest winner ever and he trained with the same kart clubs in Germany as Schumacher did. They have a special connection to each other, like the one Germans have towards F1.”
Lufthansa German Airlines is Europe’s biggest airline by sales and recently recorded a full-year net profit of 990 million euros.
The aircraft used for the Bahrain service are the Airbus 330-300 and 340-300 configured in three classes of service, eight First, 48 Business and 165 in Economy.
The year 2012 was one of the most successful years for the carrier in Bahrain. More than 40,000 passengers chose to fly with Lufthansa to and from Germany and beyond – an increase of more than 50 per cent compared to 2011. Also, the number of arriving passengers who came to Manama on business or leisure purposes was at an all-time high.
Mr Murad said: “We increased our products, conducted many successful promotions and had a good number of groups travelling with us, for example we just flew in the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra for an appearance at the Bahrain National Theatre.”
But it will be the mighty roar of F1 racing that will be enticing the Germans back again to Bahrain in April, confident their man Vettel can repeat last season’s victory in Bahrain.
“Well, we take it in a sporting spirit,” said Mr Murad. “The best driver should win but, of course, we would be happy if Vettel wins more and more races and becomes world champion again.”
