Middle East carrier Gulf Air has this week announced that it has brought forward the launch of its new winter schedule by over a month after being encouraged by the strong passenger growth witnessed across its network during the summer 2012 season. The Bahraini national carrier will introduce the new schedule from September 10, 2012 with growth in frequencies and capacity in a number of its strongest markets.
The timetable comes with a range of new features offering more frequencies between Bahrain and key GCC, MENA and Asian destinations and upgrading operational aircraft to certain destinations adding more capacity. The airline has also modified its flight timings on some routes to avoid winter weather disruptions that could potential cause flight delays.
“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 convenient travel options,” explained Karim Makhlouf, Chief Commercial Officer, Gulf Air.
“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,” he added.
Some of the most notable developments in the new schedule are the addition of seven more flights per week from Bahrain to Dubai and Kuwait, increasing overall frequencies to 63 and 49 a week, respectively. The new morning flight will offer connection opportunities for inbound passengers from London, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Istanbul and Delhi and outbound traffic to Sanaa, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Beirut, Khartoum and Kabul. There will also be capacity growth to the Egyptian capital Cairo through the introduction of widebodied Airbus A330s and larger capacity brand new A321 aircraft to accommodate more passengers.
Gulf Air will also introduce a further three weekly flights to the Jordanian capital Amman during winter 2012/2013 meaning it will now offer two rotations everyday. This network growth has been in response to strong passengers demand which has seen load factors rise to over 75 per cent, according to the airline. Beirut will also see frequency growth from seven to eleven flights per week, with the four return flights providing onward connections at Bahrain to the GCC capitals, Jeddah, Dammam, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Karachi, Manila, Addis Ababa and Khartoum.
There will also be growth into Africa with an additional five flights to Khartoum, increasing weekly frequencies from six to eleven. Passengers from the GCC and Saudi Arabia, from where a bulk of the travellers goes to Khartoum, particularly will be benefitted by the new additional flights as they offer flexibility and more flight choices, says the airline.
Elsewhere, flights to popular Indian subcontinent destinations like 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. Meanwhile, Flights to two European destinations, Frankfurt and Istanbul, will increased by one each for the winter season to meet the demand from leisure and MICE travellers.
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