In a highly welcomed move, Gulf Air is to commence its services to Hyderabad with effect from 1 July 08. On this day, the inaugural flight is to take off from the Bahrain International Airport at 00.05 am. The present move follows the most successful launch of the carrier's services to China's commercial capital of Shanghai on 16th June 2008.

Addressing the press on the eve of the launch, Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer Mr. Bjorn Naf noted, "Hyderabad has been one of our favourite destinations in our expansion plans for quite sometime and I am glad we were able to link Hyderabad- the emerging IT and bio-tech hub with "Business Friendly" Bahrain."

He too added, "This new route is another example of successful and long-established bilateral relationship between Bahrain and India and, Gulf Air, as the national carrier of the Kingdom, is proud to be a part of this growing relationship. Hyderabad is our eighth Indian destination and we hope to further expand our relationship by adding two more destinations in India within a year."

Daily non-stop direct services will be operated over the route connecting Bahrain and Hyderabad employing an
Airbus A320-200 featuring business and economy class in addition to offering two-way connectivity to several other major markets located within the region.

Most notably, Gulf Air flies more than 275 flights per month with a total capacity of not less than 50,000 seats to eight Indian destinations namely Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata Trivandrum and Mumbai.