Airline to serve trio of Iraqi cities
Thursday, 06 Aug, 2009
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Flights to three cities in Iraq are due to be operating from Bahrain by the end of next month.
National carrier Gulf Air is to fly to Baghdad from September 1 and plans to add the holy city of Najaf and Erbil, in northern Iraq, by the end of September.
Flights to Iraq’s capital Baghdad will go on sale from August 6 online at gulfair.com as well as via travel agencies and Gulf Air sales offices.
The carrier will initially operate a five times weekly service to Baghdad using an A320 narrow body aircraft. The airline hopes to increase this to a daily service in the near future.
CEO Samer Majali said: “The inclusion of Iraq to our regional network makes absolute sense both geographically and economically.
“There is a clear demand for a direct service from Bahrain and we have also ensured that our Iraq service will complement our feeder services from Europe and in particular London, which will enable us to capture intercontinental traffic with passengers having less than a two hour connection via our Bahrain hub.”
Preparations are “well underway” for Gulf Air to start flying to one of Iraq’s largest cities, Erbil, and Najaf by the end of September.
Majali added: “There are strong historic and trading links between Bahrain and Iraq and as the Kingdom’s national carrier we wanted to take full advantage of the Air Service Agreement concluded last month between the two countries as quickly as we could.
“We are creating a connection that is essential for the economic re-development of Iraq and enables us to take full advantage of the rapid growth Iraq will witness as global business and cultural links into the country develop.”
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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