Bahrain Air is to purchase six new aircraft at a cost of $270 million as part of its expansion plans, it was revealed yesterday. The cost will be financed through the setting up of a fund by the shareholders of Bahrain Air.

The airline has registered a steady growth since its inaugural flight took off from Bahrain International Airport on February 3, this year to Dubai, managing director Ibrahim Al Hamer told the Gulf Daily News, our sister newspaper.

"Bahrain Air is now negotiating with two aircraft manufacturers to purchase six new aircraft to be added to its existing fleet of modern aircraft," said Al Hamer.

"It will enable the company to add more services and expand its network to many more destinations in and outside the region."

Al Hamer said the last bidder submitted his offer a few days ago. "Now we are in the process of assessing the offers received," he said.

"If everything goes according to the plan, we should be making the final selection by June."

On the structure of the fund for financing the deal, Al Hamer confirmed that the shareholders of Bahrain Air are in the process of establishing a fund that will primarily pay for the security deposits of the aircraft.

The remaining balance, which will be due after sometime, will be borrowed from the international banking system, he said.

"For this purpose, we are currently talking to a few banks, who showed interest to come in as financiers or partners," said Al Hamer.

"We are enthused by the market response and feel the current economic buoyancy of the region augurs well for the airline that prompted it to start operations to Alexandria five times a week since March 31.

"Furthermore, on May 26, three weekly flights will start to Kochi in south India and will be increased to daily flights in October."

Moreover, two new destinations will be inaugurated next month and October, with two weekly flights to Aleppo and daily flights to Kuwait respectively.

The company also plans to launch two weekly flights to Bangladeshi capital Dhaka in October.

Commercial operations director Mohamed Saleh Fakhri said he is extremely pleased with the positive response the airline has received in Bahrain and the destination countries it flies to.

"We launched the airline during a lean travel season and are experiencing an increase of 20pc in the capacity in the second month itself," he said.

"Recently we reached a 50pc capacity in certain sectors and are positive that will have optimum capacity by the time the travel season is on".  - TradeArabia News Service