Gulf Air launches flights to Kabul

Bahrain-based Gulf Air will start flying to Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan from 15 June 2011 with four weekly flights.

The announcement follows the airline’s launch of services to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, Isfahan in Iran, Basra in Iraq, Milan in Italy and Geneva in Switzerland which brings the number of new destinations opened in 2011 to six.

Gulf Air will be the first ‘full service’ scheduled commercial carrier in the Middle East to connect Afghanistan.

CEO Samer Majali said:  “The launching of our service to Kabul follows extensive safety and security audits, and further demonstrates our strategy to connect the Kingdom of Bahrain with niche and under-served markets within the region that have high growth potential.”

“The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan has seen some remarkable growth recently and the government is committed to facilitate and promote the development of a dynamic, competitive private sector by closely working in partnership with local businesses to revitalize and expand the economy.”

He added, “By connecting Kabul with Bahrain we are opening a huge commercial opportunity for Afghanistan’s well known traditional industries such as carpets and gems, and the industrial sectors namely construction and engineering, IT/telecommunications, transportation, and of course mining, which are poised for take-off. We also foresee a huge opportunity for Bahrain’s private sector businesses in Afghanistan.”

Gulf Air will operating an Airbus A320 aircraft offering 16 Falcon Gold seats and 120 Economy class seats between Bahrain and Kabul.