Gulf Air has resumed flights from Bahrain International airport to London Heathrow, following the downgrading of the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain from red to amber on the UK’s traffic light system.
The carrier has restored its double daily service, with acting chief executive officer Captain Waleed AlAlawi stating that Gulf Air “is known for its morning and night flights to and from London and we’re happy to bring these back to offer more flexibility and convenience to our passengers”.
“London is one of our main destinations in Western Europe and we’ve been connecting both Kingdoms since 1970,” said AlAlawi. “It has also been a destination that we maintained scheduled operations to throughout 2020. Thanks to the great efforts by The National Taskforce for Combating the Coronavirus (Covid-19), the Kingdom of Bahrain is now moved from the red list to the amber list in the UK colour coding entry system.”
The decision by the UK government – which took effect on Sunday August 8 – means that fully vaccinated travellers from the UK, EU and US arriving into the UK from Bahrain no longer need to quarantine, while all other travellers can now complete the ten days quarantine at a location of their choice, rather than paying to stay in a government-approved hotel.
The resumption of flights to London means Gulf Air is now serving the following destinations:
Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Kuwait, Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Medina, Muscat, Cairo, Amman, Casablanca, London, Paris, Frankfurt, Athens, Istanbul, Tbilisi, Larnaca, Bangkok, Manila, Singapore, Dhaka, Colombo, the Maldives “and several destinations in India and Pakistan”
Several other Gulf carriers have moved to ramp up their UK services following the changes in the traffic light system – Etihad has resumed passenger flights to Heathrow and Manchester, while Emirates is to resume services to Glasgow, and said it is reviewing its UK operations.
