Gulf Air and Saudi Arabian Airlines have expanded their codeshare arrangement by introducing, for the first time, services between Bahrain and Al-Madinah Al Monwara and, between Muscat and Dammam in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The service to Dammam has started since 3 March while the service to the holy city of Al Madinah began from 26 March, 2006.

“This agreement further strengthens our existing codeshare partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines that started in 2003,” says Gulf Air Vice President Network Fareed Al Alawi.

“We see this as an important development with regard to passenger traffic to and from these destinations. The new service to the holy city of Al Madinah will help more pilgrims to travel to Saudi Arabia during Umra or Hajj.”

Dr Omer Jefferi, Vice President Marketing Planning in Saudi Arabia Airlines Advised:

‘Saudi Arabia Airlines are in the final stages to upgrade the codeshare opportunities with Gulf Air to include additional points in order to facilitate and ease traffic movements between the two airlines, which directly benefit our customers.”

Under the SV/GF code share arrangement, the new service to Al Madinah is operated by SV aircraft. The flights to Al Madinah from Bahrain are on Wednesdays while the return flights on Fridays.

The service to Dammam from Muscat is operated by GF flights as an extension of its existing Kathmandu/Muscat/Kathmandu route. There are twice weekly flights between Dammam and Muscat on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Gulf Air already has codeshare agreements with American Airlines, Thai Airways, BMI, Cyprus Airways, Egyptair, Garuda Indonesia, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, KLM, Olympic Airlines, Oman Air, Qantas Airways, Royal Jordanian Airlines, and Middle East Airlines.
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