Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, will start flying to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark from July 1 and Nairobi, the capital of Kenya from July 5 with four flights per week.

Copenhagen is set to become the airline’s first Scandinavian destination and Nairobi, its third African destination.

The new routes follow the airline’s recent commencement of services to a number of destinations including Geneva, Milan, Addis Ababa and Kabul, bringing the number of new destinations in 2011 to eight.

“The addition of Copenhagen and Nairobi along with Kabul, which we announced a few weeks ago, demonstrates the airline’s strategy of expanding its operations to diverse and underserved cities, connecting Bahrain with key cities beyond the Middle East,” said Samer Majali, chief executive officer, Gulf Air.

“We have scheduled both 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 and the Indian Sub-continent through our base in Bahrain – the fastest hub in the region.”

“Scandinavians are keen travellers to the Asian and the Indian sub-continent regions and Copenhagen is an aviation hub for the Scandinavian and Baltic regions.  The city also enjoys good surface connections with southern Sweden,” he added.

“In addition, Copenhagen is home to many international corporations and organisations, and we see a strong potential for business traffic to and from the region. By connecting Copenhagen with Bahrain we are opening up new doors of opportunity for trade and tourism for both countries.” Majali continued.

“By re-connecting Nairobi with Bahrain we are re-opening the 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.”

Gulf Air will be operating a Boeing 737 aircraft in a two-class configuration of sixteen Falcon Gold seats and seventy-eight seats in Economy to Copenhagen and 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. – TradeArabia News Service