MANAMA – Bahrain's national carrier Gulf Air unveiled its winter schedule beginning from Sept. 10. The timetable comes with a range of new features offering more frequencies between Bahrain and key regions of GCC, MENA and Asian destinations and upgrading fleet to certain destinations adding more capacity, said the airline in a statement. Gulf Air has also modified its flight timings on certain routes to avoid winter weather disruptions that may cause flight delays, it added. A major highlight of the Bahraini airline's winter schedule is the addition of seven more flights per week to Dubai and Kuwait per week each to Dubai and Kuwait. A new daily mid-day flight departing at 2pm from Bahrain to Dubai has been added, making a total of 63 flights per week, said the official. Flights to Kuwait have been increased from 42 to 49 per week with the addition of a daily morning flight leaving Bahrain at 7.35 a.m. The 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. Following the tremendous passenger response on this route that has seen over 75 percent seat load factor, flights to Jordan's capital has been increased from 11 to 14 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, it added. Beirut will also see its weekly flights increased from seven to 11 with the additional flights departing Bahrain at 5.50 p.m. The return flights from Beirut provide convenient onward connections to the GCC capitals besides Jeddah, Dammam, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka, Karachi, Manila, Addis Ababa and Khartoum via Bahrain. To cater to the Sudanese passengers, Gulf Air has boosted its flights to capital Khartoum from six to 11 per week with one new flight departing Bahrain early morning while four flights at 11.15 a.m. The new flights also provide very good connectivity to Europe, the Indian Subcontinent, and Asia via Bahrain both ways, said the Gulf Air in its statement. Passengers from the GCC and Saudi Arabia, from where a bulk of the travelers goes to Khartoum, particularly will be benefited by the new additional flights as they offer flexibility and more flight choices. "Services to Egyptian capital Cairo has been strengthened by introducing a combination of wide body A330 and larger capacity brand new A321 aircraft to accommodate more passengers," said Chief Commercial Officer Karim Makhlouf. The winter schedule, he stated, will also see increased flights to the Asian countries. "Flights to popular Indian subcontinent destinations 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," the official said. The flights to two European destinations, Frankfurt and Istanbul, have been increased by one each for the winter season to meet the demand from leisure and meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) travelers. – SG
