Dhaka : Bangladesh is a vital market for Gulf Air in the Asia continent in terms of both passenger and cargo. For the Bahrain-based legacy airline, Bangladesh stands among the top five markets in the region.

Isa Shah, Country Manager-Bangladesh of Gulf Air said this while talking to The Bangladesh Monitor in an interview on the sidelines of the airline's top agents award night held at a city hotel in the capital recently.

Bangladesh is a high yield market for Gulf Air, mentioned the Country Manager, adding that, the airline is connecting Dhaka to 56 destinations in the world.

It may be mentioned here, Gulf Air codeshares with American Airlines, allowing passengers to fly to the USA, Canada, London, Paris, Frankfurt and many other popular destinations.

Currently, the airline operates nine weekly flights on Dhaka-Bahrain route with Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner.

The airline is having a fantastic load factor of 90 per cent on Dhaka-Bahrain route, expressed the Country Manager.

He further said, the aircraft's Business Class comes with flat beds which is quite popular among Bangladeshi passengers.

60 per cent of the Gulf Air passengers are migrant workers travelling from Dhaka to Middle East while the rest flies to Europe, mostly London, Frankfurt, Paris, Rome, Milan, Istanbul, Amman, Casablanca, as well as other leisure and summer destinations.

Meaning, the airline is not only welcoming migrant workers to Bahrain or Middle East but also plenty of leisure and business travellers to onward destinations in Europe too, explained the Country Manager.

Isa Shah explained that the premium class of passengers are increasing in Bangladesh which shows great promise as Gulf Air sold tickets for 825 destinations to Bangladeshi passengers alone in the last one year.

The Country Manager also shared the airline's further expansion plans in Dhaka once the Third Terminal opens at HSIA.

He said, by 2024, Gulf Air will be increasing frequencies to 14 weekly flights on Dhaka-Bahrain route. The airline will also bring more new aircraft, he added.

The airline is studying the Chattogram market too as part of its expansion plans, claimed Isa Shah.

It may be mentioned here, Gulf Air started operating flights to/from Dhaka in 1984, making it the second GCC carrier operating in Bangladesh. The flight services came to a halt in 2012 but later resumed in 2016 and the route has been doing great ever since, concluded Isa Shah.