Gulf Aviation Company

Gulf Aviation Company was registered as private shareholding company on March 24, 1950. From 1951-1970, the British Overseas Aircraft Corporation was the major shareholder in Gulf Aviation. They introduced in-flight service in 1967. London services were initiated in 1970. BOAC’s shares were purchased by Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman, and Qatar governments in 1973.

In 1974, Gulf Aviation Company became Gulf Air. In 1976 many travel locations were added to the network including: Amsterdam, Athens, Baghdad, Bangkok, Beirut, Cairo, Colombo, Delhi, Dhaka, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Khartoum, Larnaca, Manila, Paris, Ras Al Khaimah and Sanaa. The first international airline permitted to land at Riyadh was Gulf Air. By 1985, Gulf Air had a staff of 4500. When Gulf Air initiated a travel flight directly to Johannesburg and Melbourne in 1992, they became the first Arab Airline to do so.

The year 1990,marked Gulf Air’s fortieth anniversary. The same year they became the first Arab travel airline to fly to Australia . In the year 1994, the state-of-the-art Airbus A340-300 was added to the fleet. That year they also signed a Code-Share agreement with American Airlines. This was for travel flights between London and New York.

Gulf Air launched their website in 1997. The same year Gulf Air started a Code-Share agreement with British Midland between London and Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Amsterdam, Teeside, Leeds/Bradford, Belfast. In 1999 three new travel routes were initiated in North Pakistan: Islamabad, Lahore, and Peshawar. They continued to expand their routes through Code-Share agreements as well. In 2002, Gulf Air was the first Middle East airline to introduce in flight Chefs to serve first class passengers.

Gulf Air has really grown in the past 50+ years. They stared out as a small commuter service. Today they are a major international airline. As the company has grown their mission of being committed to using the latest aviation as well as their tradition of hospitality has remained the same.

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