Driving the new commercial initiatives launched recently and further reinforcing its position as the carrier with the largest network in the Middle East, Bahrain's national carrier Gulf Air today announced its new winter schedule 2011 with a range of new features for its customers.

The winter schedule that will come into effect from 30 October offers more flights, increased frequencies, additional capacities, improved connectivity and modified timings on several routes in the airline's network.

Announcing the schedule, Gulf Air Chief Commercial Officer Mr Karim Makhlouf said," Gulf Air is now a more dynamic and agile airline than ever before and the new winter schedule is a reflection of this."

"Before drawing up the winter schedule, our commercial and network planning teams studied the travel patterns of our customers across our route network and their needs. The good news is that our ever-popular regional destinations in the UAE and Kuwait have seen tremendous increase in traffic indicating the need to augment our fleet and frequency."

"In addition, our new and re-launched routes such as Addis Ababa, Colombo, Nairobi and Beirut have proved to be very successful with high load factors, endorsing the fact our renewed focus in the Middle East and Africa is working very well. The travel patterns also indicated that our customers are looking for better and newer connections and more convenient flight timings."

He added, "The new schedule not only offers our customers an even more seamless and faster connectivity to newer destinations via Bahrain but also leverages our unique advantage of operating the largest network in the Middle East,which is a key differentiator for today's busy travellers.

"With approximately 700 flights per week within the Middle East region, flying is fast becoming a commodity for our customers as they have multiple flight choices. Our aim is geared towards this; we will offer our customers the best network of destinations, more flight choices, excellent connectivity to different market segments, newer aircraft, consistent and high quality products and above all, a real value-for-money to our customers,"Mr. Makhlouf concluded.

Gulf Air has also announced a special winter promo fares to several destinations starting at just BD 35 to Dubai and BD45 to Abu Dhabi excluding taxes that can be booked at gulfair.com or through Gulf Air World Wide Contact Centre at 17335777 or via Gulf Air facebook website.

Winter schedule highlights:

Twenty eight extra flights per week to UAE and Kuwait

Further strengthening its Middle East and North Africa network, the new winter schedule offers as many as 14 additional flights per week to Dubai and seven additional flights to Abu Dhabi making a total of 98 flights per week. Besides offering hourly flights from 4 to 8 pm daily on the Dubai route, these flights also provide perfect onward connectivity to over 40 destinationson the airline's network via its efficient Bahrain hub - a great advantage for corporate travelers.

Gulf Air will also operate seven extra flights to Kuwait-a total of 35 flights per week- offering the second highest number of connections by any airline to this Emirate. These new flights enable markets such as Lahore, Dhaka, Islamabad and Peshawar to be newly connected to Kuwait in both directions via Bahrain.

Three additional flights to Beirut with new timings for more connectivity

The airline has also increased its flights to Beirut from seven to ten per week operated by an A320 with the additional three flights departing from Bahrain at 0115am. This in turn creates many new markets that witness two-way connectivity on the Beirut route which include Riyadh, Jeddah, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Kabul, Dhaka and Manila.

Istanbul gets two extra flights with convenient split schedules

Gulf Air's Istanbul flights have been increased from five to seven times per week with a split schedule of four morning and three evening flights to provide greater network connectivity to new markets such as Bangkok, Kathmandu, Addis Ababa, Manila, Nairobi, Colombo and Kabul All Istanbul flights will be operated using an Airbus A 319 aircraft.

Addis Ababa is now a daily service

Flights to Addis Ababa, launched in January this year with four flights per week, later increased to six, have now been increased to seven. It is by far the top-performing new route on the Gulf Air network with over 80% load factor consistently and an improving yield margin. The new schedule for Addis Ababa allows its key markets such as GCC, Riyadh, Dammam, Beirut, Damascus Mumbai, Delhi and Bangkok to see excellent two-way connectivity via Bahrain.

Chennai increased from daily to nine weekly flights

Flights to Chennai have been operating close to 85% seat factor. To meet the increase in demand, two weekly flights are being added (subject to approval) departing Bahrain at 1250 pm and arriving back by 1155pm on Wednesdays and Sundays respectively, thus providing excellent connectivity across the Gulf Air network, in particular to Europe. The new markets that get two-way connectivity as a result of the increased Chennai frequencies include Paris, Copenhagen, Geneva, Frankfurt, Khartoum and Addis Ababa.

Kathmandu increased from 12 weekly to double daily

Kathmandu has also seen exceptional performance in 2011, where for the winter season, the flights have been increased from 12 weekly flights to double daily using an Airbus A320. During the peak season months of December and January, some flights will be operated with larger Airbus A330 to take advantage of the high demand of the period. With this increase, the capital of Nepal is conveniently connected on a daily basis with all of Gulf Air's European routes and on a double daily basis to the key high volume markets in the GCC and Dammam. The new markets in the winter 2011 season connected to Nepal in both directions include Cairo, Istanbul, Nairobi and Beirut.

Dhaka increased from 10 to 11 weekly flights

In this winter schedule, Dhaka has been reconnected with key high volume markets via Bahrain in both directions such as Dammam, Beirut and Kuwait. There will be six flights per week departing Bahrain at 0815 pm and five flights per week departing at 1130 am respectively. Other routes that would greatly benefit from these increased frequencies to Dhaka include Riyadh, London, Cairo, Larnaca, Jeddah, Athens, Frankfurt and Copenhagen.

Khartoum increased from six weekly to daily flights

Flights to Khartoum have grown vast improvements since the on set of the summer timetable in April when a new schedule was introduced connecting the key high volume markets. As a result of this success, the route is being increased to daily flights with markets such as Mumbai and Delhi being reconnected via Bahrain conveniently to the city. Compared to Winter 2010, the additional markets connected to Khartoum in both directions via Bahrain include Kuala Lumpur, Riyadh, Dammam, Manila, Kathmandu and Colombo.

Colombo adds one more flight

Colombo, another popular destination in the Indian sub-continent, will see its flights increased to nine per week. Launched in October last year,traffic to the Sri Lankan capital has seen over 75% load factor consistently because of the surge in tourist traffic from Europe and its perfect connectivity to and from Gulf Air's all European destinations.

Kabul now served five-times a week

Another recently launched route, Kabul has also seen an increase from four to five flights per week to meet the increasing demand from customers, especially from Europe and North America. Flights in both directions are running close to capacity and its response from the public has been quite favourable.

Yemen's two destinations delinked and flights increased

Flights to Aden and Sana'a have now become independent services instead of round-trip flights with four weekly flights to Sana'a and two to Aden separately, encouraged by the increasing customer demand for a direct service to Aden. The split terminator service for Sana'a allows the route to be connected in both directions conveniently to its top markets such as London, Mumbai, Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.

Delhi new standardized double daily schedule creating better connectivity for Africa and Europe

From the start of the Winter season, Delhi's schedule will be standardized with a double daily schedule departing Bahrain at 230pm and 1040pm respectively with arrivals back into Bahrain at 0735am and 1135pm respectively. This in turn enables all of Gulf Air's European routes to be perfectly connected via Bahrain in both directions to and from Delhi. In addition, other markets regaining two-way connections to/from Delhi include Addis Ababa, Khartoum and Nairobi.

Mumbai flights timings modified to connect more destinations

The daily flights between Mumbai and Bahrain have been modified to depart at 1845 to arrive Bahrain at 2010 so that business and leisure travellers get better connectivity to Nairobi, Addis Ababa, Khartoum, GCC and European destinations via Bahrain.

Dammam flight timings modified to connect more new destinations

Flights to Dammam have been rescheduled with four of its flights departing Bahrain at 0155hours and six flights at 0935 hours so that they can connect customers to more new high volume markets such as Beirut, Lahore, Islamabad, Dhaka, Peshawar, Amman, Damascus and Cairo in both directions via the Bahrain hub without having to use the bus service. Rest of the flights are operating as per previous schedule already offer the best connectivity to and from Manila, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Istanbul, Addis Ababa and Nairobi. Gulf Air operates a total of 23 flights per week to Dammam using a mixture of Airbus A319 and Airbus A320 aircraft.

Cairo's new split schedule offers connections to more new destinations

The new winter schedule also sees a modified time schedule for three of ten Cairo's flights changed to depart Cairo at 04:05 am. This in turn allows additional markets to be connected to Cairo in both directions via Bahrain, which include Dammam, Riyadh, Kathmandu, Manila, Kabul and Kabul while offering better connectivity to Mumbai, Delhi, Colombo, Bangkok and Dhaka.

Gulf Air's full winter timetable is available to download at gulfair.com. The website also contains an interactive route map providing arrival, departure and connection times on passengers' chosen dates at the click of a button.