By Henry Neondo

Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain has began its service to Nairobi with its inaugural flight taking off from Bahrain Tuesday at 11:40 hours from Bahrain International Airport.

Gulf Air will be operating an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration of 16 seats in Falcon Gold and 120 in Economy, and has the capacity to carry 4 tons of freight to Nairobi.

Bookings for the flights are now open with an attractive promotional return fare beginning at 1,4205 Kenyan shilling (KES) from Nairobi to Dubai, Dammam, Bahrain, Doha, Abu Dhabi Muscat and Kuwait.

At the gate ceremony held at Bahrain International Airport, Gulf Air Chief Operations Officer Capt. Nasser AlSalmi, Chief Services Officer Marcus Bernhardt and senior officials from Bahrain Civil Aviation Authority, Bahrain Airport Company and Gulf Air executives greeted passengers onboard the first flight.

Addressing the media, VIP gathering and passengers in Bahrain, Mr. Bernhardt who was also on board the first Gulf Air flight said “We are pleased to see our service re-launched to Nairobi in Kenya, our fourth destination in the African continent. Kenya has seen some impressive economic growth in recent years and we feel it is just the right time for us to be back to this great country.”

“With the addition of Nairobi we have opened 8 destinations in this year alone, which demonstrates our strategy of connecting key potential and underserved markets with the Kingdom of Bahrain and beyond.”

He continued, “We have scheduled services for good connections through Bahrain, not just to allow passengers to take advantage of the airline’s regional network – the largest in the region – but also to travel to Asia, Africa and Europe through our base in Bahrain – the fastest hub in the region.”

“By re-connecting Nairobi with Bahrain we are re-opening a huge commercial and tourism opportunity for entrepreneurs and businessmen from both markets. We are confident this new route will be a success for both our passenger and cargo operations, and we look forward to facilitating business and leisure traffic between the two countries and beyond” Mr. Bernhardt concluded.