Bahrain's flag carrier Gulf Air is expecting a busy summer season in 2023, announcing new routes and resuming others to popular tourist destinations. The airline saw good demand last summer and is anticipating more passengers to turn up this year as well.

Summer routes

Gulf Air will offer several options to travelers looking to fly to popular vacation destinations this summer. According to Routesonline, the airline will start flying between Bahrain International Airport and Goa Dabolim (GOI) from March 27th. The service to the beach destination in India will be offered four times a week.

After observing a good summer run last year, the airline is also bringing back other seasonal summer routes from 2022. Flights from Bahrain to Alexandria (HBE) and Sharm El Sheikh (SSH) will be offered twice a week from June 3rd to September 13th. Other flights include:

  • Mykonos – two weekly flights from June 1st to September 20th.
  • Nice – two weekly flights starting June 1st until September 30th.
  • Malaga – three weekly flights starting June 16th until September 29th.
Flight network
Photo: Gcmap.com

Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer Captain Waleed Al Alawi commented,

“Our network keeps adding popular boutique destinations that are favourite to many tourists and families in the Kingdom of Bahrain and the region; especially as we witnessed the demand for travel growing in a healthy accelerated way last summer. With the addition of Goa to our growing network, we are confident we will receive an even greater positive feedback from our passengers than that we received in 2022.”

Expansion

Several new developments have taken place with Gulf Air in the last few months, suggesting it is keen to expand its business. In August, it announced flights to Ras Al Khaimah International Airport and, later in the year, also launched a codeshare partnership with Emirates. The agreement was signed on the first day of the Bahrain Airshow to signify a growing relationship between both airlines following the framework of cooperation established in 2021.

Gulf Air Airbus A320 on apron
Photo: Mehdi Photos/Shutterstock

The agreement allows Gulf Air to place its code 'GF' on Emirates-operated flights beyond Dubai to several of the most attractive global tourism hotspots and offer new vacation options for its passengers. These destinations across Emirates' network include but are not limited to, Algeria, Budapest, Bali, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Prague, Taipei, and São Paulo, among others.

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The airline is also planning to start services to the US and applied to the US Transportation Department (DOT) requesting a foreign air carrier permit in December. It even posted an advert on its website for an Airport Manager at New York JFK.

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Source: Routesonline