Gulf Air expands operations into Saudi Arabia with three new destinations

Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air, in further expanding its operations into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), has announced services to three more destinations – Gassim, Yanbu and Taif, taking the total number of cities to seven in the kingdom.  

Services to Taif will begin from 15 January 2012 with four flights per week while flights to Gassim will start on 17 January with three flights per week. Yanbu services will begin from 15 February 2012 with three flights a week.

Announcing the new destinations Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer Samer Majali said, “Bahrain’s relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is historical dating back to centuries and, being the national carrier of Bahrain, we owe a special place for the Kingdom as it has also been part of the airline’s history since its beginning.  It is one of the first three countries that we began our services to, landing in Dhahran in 1950. Currently we operate to four destinations- Dammam, Jeddah, Riyadh and Medina. The launch of services to these new destinations further demonstrates this commitment by connecting people from far corners of the kingdom to travel across the world through Gulf Air.”

“And for Gulf Air, these new destinations manifest our new strategy to identify and serve niche and under-served markets and, create potentially high yield city-pairs by providing direct service to Bahrain and beyond. It is one more example of our pioneering tradition, establishing our leadership position as we become the first international airline to fly into Taif. I would like to thank the Saudi authorities for their cooperation in getting necessary permissions,” concluded Majali.

Gulf Air Chief Commercial Officer Karim Makhlouf said, “Saudi Arabia has always been, and will be, an important market for us as the announcement of these three new destinations reiterate. We are proud of the fact that we are the largest international carrier into Saudi Arabia in terms of connecting more destinations thus expanding the commercial, tourism and religious travel opportunities between the two countries and beyond.  

He added, “As the Middle East’s largest network carrier, we are well positioned to connect all these seven cities to the vast MENA, Far East and Indian subcontinent markets and vice versa. With nearly 700 flights per week within the region, our Saudi customers will be able to find a flight to their destination in the shortest possible connecting time via our efficient hub Bahrain.”

 “Just like the other recently launched routes that have been well-embraced by our customers, I am confident these three routes will also receive our customers’ support,” concluded Makhlouf.