Gulf Air has extended its cooperation with Saudi Arabian Airlines by operating two weekly non-stop code-shared flights on the Dammam-Katmandu route.

Served by Airbus A340-300 aircraft, the flights will, for the first time, link King Fahad International Airport in Dammam with non-stop services with the capital of Nepal. These two flights are part of the existing successful code-share arrangement with the national carrier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia effective from Gulf Air’s winter 2007-2008 schedule.

In addition to above code-share arrangement, Saudi Arabian Airlines has added its code on the Gulf Air-operated two flights on Riyadh-Bahrain–Bangkok route as well as on the two flights on Riyadh-Bahrain-Katmandu route. Moreover, Gulf Air and Saudi Arabian Airlines have a comprehensive code-share arrangement, which covers all flights and routes between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabian Airlines is a very important and key strategic partner to Gulf Air,” says acting executive vice president Network Hashim Mahmood.

“This code-share agreement will further improve and enhance our services to our customers. The expansion is part of our new network strategy and I am very pleased we can begin to see results so quickly,”

Gulf Air introduced a complete revamped flight schedule beginning July 2007, which was received very positively by the trade and the customers. Gulf Air plans to continue this success story for the winter 2007-2008 schedule and onwards. The Gulf Air new network offers as many as 588 flights every week in the Middle East with more non-stop flights than any other Middle Eastern airline.

“This new agreement means that travelers will have more travel options throughout the week to and from Katmandu. With these two non-stop services to Katmandu we are bringing the total number of Gulf Air frequencies to 11 per week making Gulf Air to be one of the dominant players serving the highly sought- after Kathmandu market,” concludes Mahmood.-TradeArabia News Service