Bahrain’s Gulf Air plans to improve some elements of its inflight choices subsequent 12 months because it eyes a return to the U.S. amid its seventy fifth anniversary celebrations.
On the Routes World 2024 convention in Bahrain Oct. 6, Gulf Air CEO Jeffrey Goh stated the airline’s smooth product enhancements will embrace new and upgraded meals choices, onboard facilities like free Wi-Fi and improved inflight leisure content material.
“New chinaware, new glassware, new cutlery, new smooth finishings — all these will likely be coming onboard,” he stated.
The airline doesn’t plan to replace its seats and different elements of the bodily product onboard its planes as a result of, as Goh put it, the interiors are “fairly trendy and new.”
The common age of Gulf Air’s fleet of 32 Airbus A320-family narrow-bodies and eight Boeing 787 wide-bodies is lower than seven years, in response to knowledge from aviation analytics agency Cirium.
A historic participant amongst giants
Gulf Air, based as Gulf Aviation in 1949, was the flag provider for the Persian Gulf nations of Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates for many years earlier than the rise of main carriers like Emirates and Qatar Airways. It solely grew to become a solely Bahraini airline in 2007 when Oman bought its stake within the provider.
Now, the historic airline is a small participant amongst giants. Its fleet of 40 planes compares to nicely over 200 plane every at Emirates and Qatar Airways.
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As such, Goh — who solely took the highest job at Gulf Air in 2023 — is concentrated on increasing the airline’s connectivity to and from Bahrain somewhat than competing for connecting visitors with its a lot bigger rivals.
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“Your airline, a nationwide provider, will all the time be your flying billboard,” he stated.
Whilst a nationwide provider, Gulf Air has bold progress plans. The airline intends to extend the variety of locations it serves by 1 / 4 — or from round 60 cities to round 75 — by the top of the last decade, Goh stated.
These plans embrace new U.S. flights. When requested in regards to the timing, Goh stated Gulf Air is working to fulfill the Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Safety Administration necessities needed earlier than it may start flights. He declined to touch upon the place Gulf Air may fly.
The provider’s final U.S. flights to New York Metropolis’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK) from Bahrain and Abu Dhabi resulted in 1997, in response to Cirium Diio.
Gulf Air added seven new locations to its map this 12 months, together with Geneva Airport (GVA), Munich Airport (MUC) and Shanghai Pudong Worldwide Airport (PVG), Cirium Diio schedule knowledge reveals.
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