Gulf Air, Bahrain’s national carrier, has achieved record-breaking first week sales of tickets with its five times weekly service to Baghdad, which starts on September 1.

Tickets went on sale on August 6 for the service to the Iraq capital, and sales have smashed previous first week sales figures of a newly launched Gulf Air destination.

“I am absolutely delighted to have seen such a high uptake in flights for travel to the newest destination on the Gulf Air network just one week after announcing the start of services to Iraq,” said Gulf Air chief executive officer Samer Majali.

“The hard work we put in to start services as soon as we could following the agreement between the Governments Bahrain and Iraq is really paying off,” he added.

“There is a great business potential out there as Iraq’s economy bounces back in the coming months and years. I strongly believe we have an opportunity to become the market leader in our operations there.”

In addition to Baghdad, Gulf Air will be launching services to the Holy City of Najaf and Erbil, in northern Iraq by end of September. The airline is also looking to start services to two more destinations in Iraq before the end of 2009.

Gulf Air chief commercial officer Willy Boulter added: “The excellent sales we are experiencing in flights to Baghdad within just a few days of launching the service proves beyond doubt that a direct service to Iraq is much-needed.

“Our service will open up vast opportunities between Bahrain and Iraq as the business communities can take full advantage of the rapid growth Iraq will witness.”

“We have conveniently timed our flights between Baghdad and Bahrain so that it provides seamless connection to our flights to and from our destinations in Europe in less than two and a half hours via our Bahrain hub,” Boulter noted. – TradeArabia News Service