www.bahrainair.com

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Bahrain Air is a new budget airline operating out of Bahrain International Airport (BAH), with first flights from January 2008. The Bahrain Air website is at www.bahrainair.net, not www.bahrainair.com which is mostly junk (that's why second link comes back to this post).

Summary of information from press release 26 November 2007:

BahrainAir bookings to open from 17 December 2007 via website, Bahrain Air Call Center, or travel agents. Initial destinations for Bahrain Air flights are (first flights scheduled for 17 January 2008):

• Alexandria
• Beirut
• Dubai
• Mashhad

Updated list of destinations February 2008 (from Bahrain Air website)

• Amman (AMM)
• Alexandria Al Nozha Airport (ALY)
• Bahrain (BAH)
• Beirut (BEY)
• Damascus (DAM)
• Dhaka (DAC)
• Doha (DOH)
• Dubai (DXB)
• Kuwait (KWI)
• Mashhad (MHD)

Expansion plans to GCC, Middle East, Africa and Indian sub-continent regions

Chairman of Bahrain Air: Shaikh Mohamed Bin Abdulla Al Khalifa
Managing Director: Ibrahim Al Hamer
Director of Commercial Operations: Mr Mohamed Saleh Fakhri
Board of Directors includes Mr Faisal Hassan Jawad, Mr Ali Mohamed Al Musallam

Bahrain Air fleet is Airbus A320 aircraft with Business and Economy classes

Bahrain Air has called themselves the first privately owned Premium Low Priced Carrier (LPC), which sounds like an oxymoron ... "Premium" "Low Priced Carrier" ? That bit about the oxymoron wasn't in the press release

[shawarma]

A summary of information from the Gulf Daily News 16 December 2007:

Bahrain Air launched a training programme in Manama and Amman for new staff. Operations will commence on 17 January 2008 (they already said that I think). Pilots and cabin crew are being trained at the Royal Jordanian Air Academy in Amman, Jordan.

Seat configuration will be 12 seats in business class and 150 in economy class.

Bahrain Air call center will start taking bookings from 16 December 2007.

First Bahrain Air aircraft arrives on 08 January 2008, on a long-lease arrangement. Ibrahim Al Hamer, the MD, didn't say from which company, just that it was in Europe. Second aircraft arrives around the 22 January 2008. By April 2008, BahrainAir should have 4 aircraft, and 5 by the end of 2009 according to Mr Al Hamer - "Our fleet will have four aircraft by April and five by the end of next year."

"The destinations will be increased to 14 by April next year, 23 - including the Indian subcontinent - by 2009 and 25 by 2010," said Mr Al Hamer.

Surely they'll need more than 5 planes by the end of 2009?

Bahrain AIr IPO

"Our business will be most transparent so that we can take the airline to an IPO position," - Mr Al Hamer

Bahrain Air authorised capital is BD10 million, fully paid-up capital is BD8m. Airline headquarters located in Arad.

[shawarma]

Bahrain Air website says online bookings not available yet (previous article said from 16 December 2008 I thought). So much for first flight taking off in January 2008.

Khaleej Times had an article 18 December 2007 about first Bahrain Air flight going to Dubai in the first week of February 2008. Which is probably not too bad, it's common to see launch delays much longer than that.

According to the report, Mohammed Saleh Fakhri, Director Commercial Operations, Bahrain Air said that Bahrain Air would be launching flights to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Middle East, Yemen, Iran, Africa, and the Indian sub-continent, in stages.

Al Rais Travel will be the GSA in Dubai for Bahrain Air.

[shawarma]

First Bahrain Air flight was Sunday 03 February 2008 from Bahrain (BAH) to Dubai (DXB). News release shortly after said flight 2B101 arrived to a water cannon salute at Dubai International Airport .

Bahrain Dubai schedule is 2 flights per day during February and March 2008, aircraft is an A320 with business and economy classes.

Flight 2B102 Dubai (DXB) to Bahrain (BAH) departure 0955 arrival 1015
Flight 2B110 Dubai (DXB) to Bahrain (BAH) departure 2220 arrival 2240

Flight 2B101 Bahrain (BAH) to Dubai (DXB) departure 0700 arrival 0910
Flight 2B109 Bahrain (BAH) to Dubai (DXB) departure 1925 arrival 2135

Bahrain Air Managing Director name changed to Ebrahim Al Hamer (actually, it's the same, just a slightly different spelling). He said "Initially, the airline will cover 13 destinations and 140 flights weekly across the region,"

[shawarma]

Checked Bahrain Air website for list of destinations...

• Amman (AMM), Jordan
• Alexandria Al Nozha Airport (ALY), Egypt
• Bahrain (BAH)
• Beirut (BEY), Lebanon
• Damascus (DAM), Syria
• Dhaka (DAC), Bangladesh
• Doha (DOH), Qatar
• Dubai (DXB), UAE
• Kuwait (KWI)
• Mashhad (MHD), Iran (not Mashad)

Could also be flights to Dammam (Saudi Arabia) and Khartoum (Sudan) starting up?

Bahrain Air website currently advertising flights from BHD 5 to most or all destinations. That sounds pretty good, equivalent to just under 50 UAE dirhams. Don't know what extra charges there are, or if that's the price for one way or return. Often these low cost carriers quote prices per flight rather than return.

[shawarma]

Press release this week says Bahrain Air will start flying from Bahrain to Kuwait and Bahrain to Alexandria at the end of March 2008

Bahrain to Kuwait from 30 March 2008, tickets from BD 7
Flights 3x per week departing Bahrain at 22:30

Bahrain to Alexandria, Egypt from 31 March 2008, tickets from BD 10
Flights 4x per week departing Bahrain at 23:00