Gulf Air Wants To Increase London Flight Frequency By 30% Amid Network Review

After an extensive review of its existing network and the opportunities that could be explored, Bahrain’s flag carrier, Gulf Air, is looking to expand its presence in London. The airline competes against some big players in the Middle East and wants to expand further out of its hub airport in Bahrain.

Eyeing more flights to London

Gulf Air intends to increase its international network, and London seems to be at the top of the list. According to a report by Travel Weekly, the carrier wants to increase its capacity to London by 30%. Currently, Gulf Air flies to London Heathrow two times a day from Bahrain. The carrier also serves Manchester in the UK.

The airline’s executives arrived at this decision after closely examining its existing network and also exploring what opportunities it could explore. Gulf Air’s chief executive officer, Jeffrey Goh, spoke with Travel Weekly and said,

“We spent the first half of this year looking at network proposals and what of the existing network makes sense. The network goes back 40-50 years, and Gulf Air wasn’t well connected to financial centres or leisure markets.”

Key challenges

Of course, deploying more aircraft to London won’t be as straightforward. Goh has identified two key challenges to this plan. One of them is the slot constraint at London Heathrow. The airport is perpetually in high demand from international airlines all over the world and has some of the priciest slots.

Availability of new slots at Heathrow is expected to be a significant challenge for Gulf Air. The airline ideally wants to fly to Heathrow, but if that’s not possible, then London Gatwick could also be explored.

The second challenge is the availability of new aircraft needed to drive this growth. Like many global airlines, Gulf Air has been affected by grounded planes (two of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners are currently inactive). The disruption in the global supply chain issues has affected major aircraft manufacturers and that trickles down to airlines eventually.

Other network plans

London is one of many destinations that have been identified for growth. Goh is also bullish on the development in the region, given Saudi Arabia’s growth trajectory, which he feels will be good for Bahrain as well. As such, the airline is busy looking at destinations that have potential.

Destinations like Shanghai and Munich were recently added, and the carrier is looking to add more flights to places like Delhi and Mumbai as well as potentially start service to the Maldives. Goh said, “The pie is big enough for us to have a slice of the market. We have disciplined ambitions on growth.” He also added,

“We’ll gradually recalibrate the network map. Destinations that don’t fit will fall away and we’ll announce new destinations up to 2028.”

Simple Flying’s route expert James Pearson also spoke with Goh a few months back and discussed potential plans for Gulf Air to start US flights. The airline used to fly to New York JFK between 1994 and 1997 and is keen to restart US flights, but the plan is not without its hurdles. To find out more, check out the article below.