Gulf air closes underperforming flights routes

Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air announced the closure of its services to four destinations; Damascus, Athens, Milan and Kuala Lumpur. Services to Damascus will stop from the 2nd of March while flights to Athens and Milan will stop from 12th of March and Kuala Lumpur from 25th of March 2012. This follows the announcement of the closure of Entebbe and Geneva routes earlier this month. The move comes as the airline seeks to address the economic challenges faced in recent years; in particular, owing to regional political situation, high fuel prices and low passenger traffic. The decision has been taken to allow the airline to use its fleet and resources in the most efficient way concentrating on high-demand, high-yield routes and to ensure that its core customer base is served effectively. Gulf Air’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Samer Majali said: “It is currently a challenging business environment for airlines around the world. These closures are pragmatic commercial decisions aimed at focusing services on routes with higher passenger traffic. Our commercial strategy, developed in 2009, delivered significant gains in 2010 but last year has been challenging. Therefore, we are now adapting our approach to address the challenges on an urgent basis.” Gulf Air realizes that this will be disappointing news to some of its customers and regrets the inconvenience this may cause. Passengers, who have confirmed bookings (both outgoing and inbound flights) from and to these destinations on or after 02 March /12 March /25 March, are being informed of the closures. Customers are requested to contact Gulf Air Worldwide Contact Centre on    + 973 17373737 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            + 973 17373737      end_of_the_skype_highlighting       or local contact centres for alternative travel options or refunds.