Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain and the largest network operator in the Middle East, added Entebbe to its growing network, its third East African operation with four non-stop weekly flights between Entebbe and Bahrain.

The inaugural flight GF 719 took off from Bahrain International Airport at 10:20am landing in Entebbe International Airport at 15:45 carrying a high-level delegation onboard that included airline representatives and members of the media from the Middle East, led by the airline’s Chief Services Officer Mr. Marcus Bernhardt. The welcome ceremony included a water salute and an official reception by the Uganda Civil Aviation Authority Managing Director, Dr. W. Rama Makuza.

Addressing the media on arrival at Entebbe International Airport Mr. Bernhardt commented, “We are delighted to re-commence services to Entebbe, opening the doors for commercial and tourism opportunities in East Africa, the MENA region and beyond. 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.”

Being the Middle East’s largest network carrier, Gulf Air is well positioned to connect several key destinations in the region providing excellent connectivity via Bahrain with seamless and convenient flight schedules to key destinations such as Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Bombay in India or the Far East.

Gulf Air will be operating an Airbus A320 in a two-class configuration of 16 seats in Falcon Gold and 120 in Economy with the capacity to carry four tons of freight.

As part of its network strategy to expand into niche markets, Gulf Air started services to 9 new destinations since January 2011 in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and has recently announced the launch of services to Juba, in South Sudan from 7 Feb 2012. Adding Juba brings to 3 the airline’s destinations within East Africa and 55 globally.