TODAY the Gulf Daily News asks our family of readers, followers and connections to sign a petition to urge British Airways to continue its direct flights to and from London.
Together, we need to convince Sean Doyle, chairman and CEO of British Airways (BA), of the routes’ importance, popularity and sound business strength for his company, as well as to the UK and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Thousands of passengers – Bahrainis and expatriates – fly from Bahrain to London. Many stay to holiday in the UK, others such as members of the US Navy based in Juffair travel on to their home states via the capital.
Thousands of passengers – Brits and global travellers – fly to Bahrain for the annual Formula One extravaganza and to holiday in the ‘kingdom of smiles’ at one of its growing portfolios of five-star hotel properties.
Late last week, news reports circulated online by aviation insiders, as highlighted in the GDN, that BA may indefinitely axe all flights to Bahrain from early next year because of continuing problems with Rolls-Royce engines that power the airline’s Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet.
Following a review, the airline has decided that Bahrain and Gulf neighbour Kuwait ‘aren’t commercially viable’.
These reports were neither confirmed nor denied by BA, despite numerous attempts by the GDN for a specific clarification.
This silence, however, may offer a glimmer of hope that perhaps due diligence has not yet been fully carried out by the airline and common sense and good business acumen will win the day … with our readers and the airline’s customers/passengers playing a key role by signing this petition.
British Airways’ flights to the Gulf date back to 1932 and the pre-World War II services featured flying boat operations, run by predecessor airline, Imperial Airways that continued into the post-war years.
BOAC, another of the British Airways’ predecessor airlines, launched a Bristol Britannia service in 1959 that served a number of Gulf destinations, including Bahrain.
Those first flights laid the path for what was to become the route between two of the most important transport hubs in the world.
It confirmed Bahrain’s position as a key link between East and West, a position it first held many centuries ago in the era of Dilmun.
There was another historical flight between London and Bahrain in 1976 – the first scheduled flight by a British Airways Concorde. Both of these flights symbolised the uniquely close relationship between Bahrain and the United Kingdom.
The link between Bahrain and Britain is accentuated with the daily service between Manama and Heathrow, alongside the flights offered by our own Gulf Air.
Mr Doyle has embarked on a £7 billion (BD3.5bn), three-year transformation of BA with more than 600 initiatives … yet one decision to keep faith in the Bahrain to London flight schedule may be among his finest and most astute.
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