As part of the new summer schedule, Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air will increase its flights to Dhaka to twelve flights per week as of 25 March 2012, to meet growing passenger numbers. 

Gulf Air will be operating an Airbus A320 until May 2012 on this route and will introduce a larger capacity A332 aircraft from June onwards offering as many as 255 seats and 12 tonnes of cargo capacity to accommodate the summer demand. 

Gulf Air Chief Commercial Officer Mr. Karim Makhlouf said, “The Indian sub-continent has seen an impressive performance in the recent past with high load factors. Dhaka, particularly, has witnessed a high load factor throughout last year both in terms of passenger numbers as well as cargo. This has clearly indicated the need for us to augment our fleet capacity and frequency to the Capital of Bangladesh.

“A large share of our customers from Bangladesh is either working or doing business in the Gulf region in addition to a sizable number in Europe for whom Gulf Air provides excellent connectivity with over 300 flights a week in the GCC, Europe and MENA regions. This additional frequency allows more weekly connectivity for passengers travelling between Dhaka and Dammam, London, Jeddah, Cairo, GCC, Larnaca and Riyadh” Mr. Makhlouf concluded.

In January this year, Gulf Air introduced a free shuttle coach service between three key cities in Bangladesh – Chittagong, Sylhet and Dhaka facilitating movement to and from the capital’s Shah Jalal International Airport – the largest and main airport in Bangladesh.