Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air today reaffirmed its longstanding relationship with the Republic of Lebanon, unveiling a series of commercial initiatives tailored to the Lebanese market. The airline also announced the launch of their most recent promotional initiative with a 25% discount on flights from Beirut to select GCC and Far East destinations.

Addressing the media at a press conference held in Beirut today, Gulf Air Chief Commercial Officer Mr. Karim Makhlouf said, “Gulf Air’s relationship with Lebanon is a longstanding one – dating back to 1974 when we first launched our flight operations to Beirut. Lebanon remains a strategic route and market for the airline today. Accordingly, Gulf Air recognizes and celebrates our long-term commitment to Lebanon with tailored offerings for our passengers.”

Tailored to the needs of the growing number of corporate passengers travelling from Lebanon, Gulf Air is soon launching Falcon Corporate Plus, a package designed exclusively for corporate travellers offering a range of benefits such as price discounts and free upgrades from economy to Falcon Gold class.

The airline is also designing an innovative programme specifically for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Lebanon that offers a range of incentives including a double bonanza by which both - the member organizations and their travelling employees - earn miles that can be redeemed for free flights, upgrades, etc.

Gulf Air’s popular Frequent Flyer programme has been recently renamed ‘Falcon Flyer’ and now offers members even more attractive privileges and value added benefits such as bonus miles up to 250%, guaranteed seats, priority baggage handling, half miles redemption and family membership.

For families, Gulf Air will be introducing ‘Family First’ - a series of competitively priced packages for customers travelling with spouses and children, offering special privileges both on the ground and in the air. This will be an attractive package particularly for the Lebanese, who often travel with their families on vacation.

Of Gulf Air’s latest commercial initiatives the ‘Sky Hub’ offers the world’s first full connectivity onboard long-haul flights with high speed internet, 3G-4G mobile data speed connectivity, voice over the internet (VOIP) i.e. Skype, streaming videos and the world’s first in-flight live TV via satellite. Passengers can stay connected in the sky for approximately USD$ 25 for 24 hours.

“Our latest commercial initiatives are simply the beginning of many future endeavors towards developing the existing relationship between Gulf Air and Lebanon and further strengthening our ties” concluded Mr. Makhlouf.

As the Middle East’s largest network carrier, Gulf Air is well positioned to connect Beirut to several key destinations in the region with 10 weekly flights and excellent connectivity via Bahrain to key destinations such as Dubai, UAE, Bangkok, Thailand and Delhi in India.

As part of its network strategy to expand into niche markets, Gulf Air started services to 10 new destinations since January 2011 in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and has recently launched services to Rome, the Italian capital and Entebbe in Uganda from 5 Dec with Juba, the current capital of South Sudan launching on 7 Feb 2012.

The promotional discount of 25% for travellers from Beirut on flights to select GCC and far East destinations ends on 20 December 2011, and is valid for travel from 1 January – 31 March 2012. Gulf Air offers are available on the official Gulf Air website gulfair.com.

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