Gulf Air to start Hyderabad flights on Tuesday

Gulf Air to start Hyderabad flights on Tuesday
Staff Report GULF NEWS Published: June 30, 2008, 20:22


Dubai: Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, will begin its services to Hyderabad from Tuesday with its inaugural flight taking off from Bahrain International Airport at 12.05am.

This follows the airline's launch of its services to China's commercial capital Shanghai on June 16.

"Hyderabad has been one of our favourite destinations in our expansion plans for quite sometime and I am glad we were able to link Hyderabad, the emerging IT and bio-tech hub with business friendly Bahrain," said Gulf Air chief executive Biorn Naf on the eve of the launch.

"This new route is another example of successful and long-established bilateral relationship between Bahrain and India and, Gulf Air, as the national carrier of the kingdom, is proud to be a part of this growing relationship.

Hyderabad is our eighth Indian destination and we hope to further expand our relationship by adding two more destinations in India within a year."

Old ties

Highlighting Gulf Air's nearly 50-year-old relationship with India with its first flight to Mumbai in 1960 - one of the first few foreign airlines to operate into India at that time - Naf said: "India is a booming economy and Hyderabad, as the fifth largest Indian city, is full of opportunities and an important market for us."

The daily non-stop service between Bahrain and Hyderabad will be served by an Airbus A320-200 with business and economy classes.

Gulf Air operates over 275 flights per month offering as much as 50,000 seats to eight Indian destinations - Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram.