Gulf Air is likely to start direct flights from Manama to New York this summer, it has emerged.
The development came during a high-level Zoom event last night which featured introductions from Palm Beach county mayor Robert Weinroth and Bahrain’s Ambassador to the US Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al Khalifa.
Panel topics included cross-cultural opportunities in tourism, higher education, immigration, tax law and free trade.
“While the official date has not been formally announced, the expectation is for direct flights from Manama to New York to commence in the summer pending final formalities,” Economic Development Board investment origination director Redha Karim told an American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) webinar yesterday.
The EDB is Bahrain’s national investment promotion agency.
Mr Karim said this in response to a question during the session themed: ‘US-Bahrain cross-border business opportunities with business and government leaders from the World Trade Centre Palm Beach and Bahrain’.
It comes just over a month after Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Zayed Alzayani announced the national carrier’s plans to resume direct flights between Bahrain and the world’s largest economy.
The Bahrain-US flights would likely be operated using new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, which Gulf Air started inducting in 2018 to overhaul its long-haul fleet. Seven Dreamliners are already in service on key routes such as Bahrain-London Heathrow.
Mr Alzayani, who is also Gulf Air’s chairman, has in the past spoken about new routes including the US, Australia and Singapore, as part of its five-year strategic plan that aimed at expanding the national carrier’s reach to more than 60 destinations by 2023.
As the GDN has previously reported, the airline was expected to start US flights in 2020, but this was put on hold with the outbreak of Covid-19.
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