Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, expects to carry six million passengers this year after posting yet another record for its load factor last month.

The airline had its highest passenger load factor last month after posting a similar performance in April and has also surpassed industry average in its load factor for the January to March period.

During last month, Gulf Air has registered a network-wide passenger seat factor exceeding 85 per cent on several occasions.

Bookings to and from the Indian Sub-Continent and Far East destinations continued to be robust with load factors as high as 95 per cent.

Premium class bookings were also continuing healthy growth, especially Business Class, which has seen an 8 per cent increase so far during the first five months over last year.

"This positive trend only goes to prove the increasing customer confidence in us and that we are growing from strength to strength, which we have been witnessing since the beginning of the year, said Gulf Air chief executive officer Bjorn Naf.

"We have in fact, revised our passenger and revenue forecast upwards encouraged by this upbeat performance as we expect to carry 6m passengers this year with 29 aircraft.

"Our revamped network with a customer-friendly schedule, improved punctuality and strategic business alignment have contributed to these achievements."

He said the airline is continuing its efforts to provide enhanced travel experience for the customers through seamless connectivity, faster check-in and check-out and improved on-time arrivals and departures supported by an efficient and simple online booking engine that comes with lowest fare guarantee.

Forward bookings for peak-summer travel indicate that the high performance trend will continue with very high levels of over 85 per cent utilisation to most of Gulf Air popular destinations in the Sub-Continent, Far East and Europe.

"We are the third biggest airline in the region measured by passenger numbers and we are on a fast track to expand the Gulf Air network to strategic destinations beginning with the launch of new services to Shanghai from June 16 and Hyderabad from July 1," said director, network management Hashim Mahmood.

The airline also announced a new five-year agreement with Sita, the IT business solutions and communications air transport specialist, for Aircom support as part of its overall thrust to offer more non-stop flights than any other airline in the Middle East.

"We are offering 588 flights every week in the Middle East with more non stop flights than any other airline and we are adding 24 Boeing 787 aircraft to our fleet over the next five years," said Gulf Air vice-president IT Jalal Alqassab.-TradeArabia News Service