NEW ROUTE: Gulf Air will start flights to Baghdad from September 1.

Bahrain's national carrier Gulf Air has announced it will start a route to the Iraqi capital Baghdad from September 1.

"Gulf Air will become the first GCC airline to offer direct flights to Iraq, adding to its pioneering legacy," Samer Majali, CEO said in a news release.

"The inclusion of Iraq to our regional network makes absolute sense geographically and economically. There is demand for a direct service from Bahrain and we have ensured that our Iraq service will complement our feeder services from Europe and in particular London, which will enable us to capture intercontinental traffic with passengers having less than two hour connections via our Bahrain hub.

"There are strong historic and trading links between Bahrain and Iraq and we want to take full advantage of the air service agreement both countries concluded last month,’ he said.

Gulf Air will operate a service five days a week to Baghdad. The carrier plans to add routes to Najaf and Irbil to its network by the end of September.

Comments (5)

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Bias towards the UAE?
Posted by W Grigsby, Dubai, UAE on 19 August 2009 at 21:28 UAE time

Could that possibly be because the UAE accounts for over 65% of the passenger and freight movements through the Middle East Region??

Aviation power 50
Posted by Ali on 19 August 2009 at 07:12 UAE time

I do not agree with your list, I believe that its totally biased towards the UAE, the reason is simple. Arabian business is in UAE, hence being biased. if you notice your daily news too biased towards the UAE. If you want to publish such list it should be done by a professional survey firm.

Aviation top 50
Posted by AmaJ, London, UK on 17 August 2009 at 13:48 UAE time

J Marsh,
In terms of it being a subjective list, I'll agree with you, but in order for it not to be a random list of names with no criteria to their ranking makes it a stupid man's guess
As for the baby airlines, I also agree that it is those niche carriers that will be carrying the industry in a new direction, and will probably be much more profitable than the established in the long run, but this list is specifically about influence. By the very nature of the attribute, "new" "niche", whatever you want to call it, it may have the potential for being more influential in the future, but definitely not now, as you say with the current status quo.
By heavy industry executives I mean established airline executives, rather than airport executives. You state that "Airports are more complex, more capital intensive and in most cases face greater challenges than most airlines", maybe, probably not, but maybe. In any case, it is airline chiefs and other aerospace executives that control the planes, the flow of traffic, and every other revenue driver that airports need to operate, and so they have by far more influence. The only bargaining chip that airports have with regards to airlines is the distribution of the slots. This is even less true in the Middle East (where I'm from and have lived most of life) where airports are controlled by their respective ministries of transports who in turn allocate slots based on the political manifesto of the country. Regardless of whether they are tougher to run as you as you say, it doesnt make them more influential.

Aviation Top 50
Posted by J Marsh, Doha, Qatar on 17 August 2009 at 00:20 UAE time

Amaj, it clearly says in the article that it is a (subjective) list of the most influential leaders in Middle East Aviation - the only part of the industry that is not in the dolrums at the moment. And it's the baby airlines with new business models that are taking the industry in a new direction, not the established businesses who are trying to keep their slice of the status quo. And why do you think that airport directors are any less influential than 'heavy industry executives', whatever that means? Airports are more complex, more capital intensive and in most cases face greater challenges than most airlines. Perhaps your view of the Middle East from London is more obscure than those of us who are actually in the region - and the list seems pretty accurate from here.

Aviation top 50
Posted by AmaJ, London, UK on 14 August 2009 at 15:59 UAE time

I believe this list provides an inaccurate and poor assessment of the industry's leaders. How can this list have airport directors more influential heavy industry executives who actually influence the global industry? How is it possible that new baby airlines with CEOs who are equally relatively new to the scene be more influential than other established leaders? More over, some of the personal biographical and professional information shown for the some of the executives are factually incorrect.
Please give an explanation towards how this list came to be. I work in the aviation industry myself, and find it to be close to a joke amongst many of my peers.
Good luck on the next one

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