Dhaka, 30 May, 2016: Gulf
Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, today resumes its Dhaka flight after four
years. The airline will operate five flights every week.
The maiden flight landed at Hazrat
Shahjalal International in the morning today with 80 percent passenger on
board.
To celebrate its
flight resumption, Gulf Air organised an event at Balaka lounge at the
Shahjalal International Airport. Wing Commander Chowdhury Md. Zia-Ul Kabir,
Director, Flight Safety & Regulations, Civil Aviation Authority of
Bangladesh; Md. Atique Sobhan, Director, Customer Services (Actg), Biman
Bangladesh Airlines; Mehdi Jaffar, Deputy High Commissioner, Bangladesh Embassy
in Bahrain and Group Captain MK Zakir
Hassan, Director, Airport were present at the event as special guests.
Hussain Ghuloom,
Country Manager and Jassim Ghareeb, Airport Manager of Gulf Air, were present
on behalf of Gulf Air as the organiser of the event.
More than 1.5
lakh Bangladeshis are working in Bahrain right now. The diasporas has been
facing difficulties while they travel from Dhaka to Bahrain as there was no
direct flight. Upon a bilateral agreement between the Bangladesh and Bahrain
Government, Bahrain has decided to restart its flight operation in Bangladesh.
Bahrain has
started operating the flight since 1984, which came to an end in 2012.
Mehdi Jaffar,
Deputy High Commissioner, Bangladesh Embassy in Bahrain and 12 airline crews
along with other passengers arrived in Dhaka by the inaugural flight today. Gulf Air also
signed a long term agreement with Hotel Le Meridian Dhaka today.
Under the
agreement, all the crew members and other officials of Gulf Air will reside at
the hotel during their stay in Bangladesh.
The guests were
welcomed at the hotel by Ashwani Nayar, General Manager, and Anowar Hossain,
Director, Sales and Marketing of Hotel Le Meridian.