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Bahrain International Airport
Bahrain International Airport is at the center of commercial aviation in the Gulf region. A number of international airlines, including cargo carriers and charter flight operators, have chosen us as their regional hub in the Middle East.
Bahrain International Airport now handles more than 4.2 million passengers a year. Thus confirming its status as the Gulf's leading air hub.
Bahrain can offer double the number of frequencies to more destinations in the Gulf and Middle East than any other airport in the region. In any given week 12 Middle East carriers, led by the national carrier Gulf Air, operate more than 300 flights to over 50 destinations in the Gulf and wider Middle East market, including points in North Africa.
It provides an unrivaled opportunity for airlines outside the region to designate Bahrain International Airport as the hub of choice, confident of the wider market access the gateway can provide to destinations in and beyond the region. Added to this, the Bahrain-Saudi causeway has made the huge market of Saudi Arabia and other neighboring Gulf states directly accessible by road from Bahrain. Bahrain International Airport now expects to build further on its Gulf Hub status. An investment of millions of dollars is on the way for building the new satellite terminal facilities ,which will dramatically help airport's passenger handling capabilities for more than 10 million passengers a year.
Ensuring that Bahrain International Airport operates with clockwork efficiency, and fully meets the needs of both passengers and airline customers is the Bahrain Airport Promotions Group. A core group that operates under the umbrella of the Civil Aviation Authority and consists of several companies that play an integral role in the smooth functioning of Bahrain International Airport on a day-to-day basis.
History
The first scheduled commercial flight arrived to Bahrain was on October 1932 en-route from London to Delhi with airplane named HANDLEY PAGE " HANNIBAL". The flight from the UK for the 24 passengers had taken several days, chugging along at a leisurely speed of 100 mph. There had been frequent stops, including overnight stopovers. Nonetheless, the first scheduled air services had been established to what was the Gulf's first international airport.
Imperial Airways, the forerunner of what was to become BOAC and then British Airways (BA) operated several proving flights through the Gulf in the late twenties, before starting scheduled services. According to records, the first Imperial Airways flight to Bahrain was in August 1927 when a local pearl merchant chartered a de Havilland aircraft from Baghdad to Bahrain. Even for this relatively short sector an overnight stop in Basrah was required.
The Handley Page HP 42 was to become the standard long-haul aircraft for Imperial Airways and was used on the route between the UK and India after the airline began scheduled services via Basrah, Bahrain and Sharjah, with Kuwait added soon after as an optional calling point. By 1936 the operation had been stepped up to a twice-weekly frequency.
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