GULF AIR has added 11 extra flights to its existing flights to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah and Riyadh to meet the increasing passenger demand. The airline will operate four extra flights to Jeddah, increasing its frequency from 10 to 14 per week each direction starting from March 1, 2012, while adding seven flights to Riyadh increasing the frequency from its present 14 flights per week to 21 flights each direction, also starting from March 1, 2012. Together, these additional flights will offer 3,000 seats and 22,000 kilos of cargo capacity per week.
The new flights also reiterate the national carrier’s business objective of providing double daily and same day return for business travellers, who now have more options to travel to these cities and return the same day after completing their business without the need to stay overnight involving expensive hotel accommodation.
Announcing the additional flights, Gulf Air has offered a special 20 per cent promotional discount between Jeddah/Riyadh and Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai (Madras), Karachi, Lahore, Kathmandu and Bangkok.
Gulf Air chief executive officer Samer Majali said: “The introduction of additional flights to these two cities emphasizes the importance we attach to Saudi Arabia and our business strategy to concentrate on high-demand routes to ensure our core customer base is served effectively and efficiently.
“The departures and arrivals of the additional flights have been timed in such a way that it benefits international and regional business travellers. Being strategically located at the doorsteps of Saudi Arabia, Gulf Air offers the best connections for customers to reach out to the vast GCC, Mena and Europe markets with over 300 connections in less than three hours via its efficient Bahrain hub. Regional travellers now have more flight options to travel between Bahrain and these cities and return the same day.”
With introduction of additional flights, Jeddah customers are now connected to more new destinations, i.e. Frankfurt, Rome, Paris, Kabul, Cairo, Copenhagen, Nairobi, Amman and Beirut as well as 13 more extra connections to and from Mumbai, New Delhi, and Chennai (Madras). Customers from Riyadh will be able to connect to Kabul in addition to getting onward connections to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai within one/two hours via Bahrain.
Last month, the airline announced the closure of its services to four destinations; Damascus, Athens, Milan and Kuala Lumpur, as airline seeks to address the economic challenges faced in recent times; in particular, the local and regional political situation, the high price of fuel and low passenger numbers. This follows the announcement of the closure of Entebbe and Geneva routes earlier this month.