marhaba, the familiar meet and greet service for passengers at Dubai International Airport, has announced its first international venture, with the signing of an agreement to provide its services at Bahrain International Airport (BIA).

Teams of staff from marhaba - which means ‘welcome’ in Arabic - have been helping passengers arriving at, transiting through and departing from Dubai International Airport (DIA) since 1991.  With a range of services including chauffeur services and airport lounges, marhaba’s products are designed to make passengers’ journeys as easy and as comfortable as possible.

The recent agreement signing ceremony held in Bahrain was attended by representatives from Bahrain Airport Authorities, Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA), Police, Immigration, Customs Authorities, Bahrain Airport Company as well as representatives from marhaba’s management. The agreement will allow marhaba to provide a comprehensive range of premium passenger handling services at BIA including meet and greet services on arrival and departure; transfer services; concierge/ porter service; arranging hotel accommodation; lounges; visa processing and chauffeur services.

“After 20 successful years at Dubai International Airport, we feel confident that we can expand our services even further by partnering and investing within Bahrain,” said Ismail Ali Albanna – Executive Vice President of marhaba. “We’ve worked hard to establish ourselves as a known and trusted brand and we look forward to bringing the same sense of reliability, quality and efficiency to the visitors to and residents of Bahrain”.

The new marhaba services at BIA are scheduled to be available to passengers starting from the summer season of 2012.

“Our core objective at Bahrain International Airport (BIA) is to advance the contribution of the airport to the economy by enhancing BIA’s status, infrastructure and benefits to all stakeholders, passengers and users of its facilities. That is why we are glad to welcome a new partner that will further the success of our airport,” said Gordon Dewar, CEO of Bahrain Airport Company, “Bringing an experienced company to operate our Meet and Assist services will raise our standard of service to an international level,” added Mr. Dewar.