Some 684,341 passengers flew on Gulf Air flights during the month of August to the 45 destinations on its network, stated a press release.
"The number of passengers on Gulf Air flights for the month is up 18.2 percent over the same period last year, with an average load factor in excess of 80 percent," said President and Chief Executive at the airline, James Hogan. "Although the summer months are traditionally busy, performance over the last two months has exceeded our targets."
Hogan also attributes the strong performance to the success of Gulf Traveller, the all economy full service subsidiary, which commenced operations out of Abu Dhabi in June this year. Leisure traffic has grown and Gulf Air Holidays recorded an increase of 78 percent in bookings over the same period last year.
Premium traffic is also up and numbers of first class passengers increased by 33.5 percent over August 2002, with particularly strong growth experienced on the European sector. Strong growth in passenger traffic was matched by a 12.2 percent increase in cargo uplift.
The improved performance follows record figures in July when the airline achieved a load factor of 72 percent with year on year increases of 13.1 and 8.2 percent in passenger and cargo growth respectively.
Gulf Air was founded in 1950. Today, it is owned by the governments of Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and is the only truly pan Gulf airline in the region. The airline's network stretches from Europe to Asia and covers 45 cities in 33 countries. The fleet is one of the most modern in the Middle East and comprises 33 aircraft. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
