Gulf Air announced on Sunday that they will offer daily service to Kuala Lumpur from July 2020. The route will be operated with the airline’s flagship 787-9 Dreamliner. Earlier this week, Gulf Air announced an expansion of its codeshare partnership with Turkish Airlines.
Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, announced today that they will be adding the popular business and tourist destination of Kuala Lumpur to their 2020 schedule. Service to the Malaysian capital will be operated daily with the airline’s flagship Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner beginning July 2020. The route addition is in line with Gulf Air’s “boutique strategy” to add leisure destinations to its carefully crafted route network. In Sunday’s announcement, Gulf Air’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Krešimir Kučko said,
“This is very exciting for us at Gulf Air to reach further places and connect multiple cities in the East and the West to our hub, the Kingdom of Bahrain. We are glad to resume operations to Kuala Lumpur; a destination known for its leisure and business appeal. We will be operating daily flights to the Malaysian capital as it has proven to be an extremely popular destination to our passengers.”
Gulf Air is rapidly expanding their network in a tactical way by adding feeder cities to balance traffic from the east and west of the Kingdom. The airline’s long-haul routes are being served exclusively by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, of which they have already received seven. As part of their boutique business model and fleet modernization plans, the airline has also received five new Airbus A320neos.
On Thursday, Gulf Air also announced the expansion of their codeshare partnership with Turkish Airlines. The airlines signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and now Gulf Air will place its ‘GF’ code on Turkish Airlines’ flights from Bahrain to Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport. Gulf Air’s code will also be placed on Turkish Airlines’ flights from Istanbul to Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Munich, Berlin, Zurich and Thessaloniki. Likewise, Turkish Airlines will place its ‘TK’ code on Gulf Air’s flights from Bahrain to Dubai, Faisalabad, Multan, Sialkot and Manila.
Gulf Air and Turkish Airlines entered their primary codeshare partnership in November of 2017 which doubled the service between Istanbul and Bahrain with two daily jointly-operated flights. Currently, Gulf Air operates two daily flights from Bahrain to Istanbul and Turkish Airlines operates a third daily frequency.
Source: Gulf Air