Over the last year, Israel has established diplomatic relations with more Middle East countries. This began with a new agreement between Israel & the United Arab Emirates. It included nonstop flights between the countries, such as ELAL flying to Dubai and Etihad flying to Tel Aviv.
Israel has established new relations with other countries, including the UAE. A bilateral agreement was signed in late 2020 between Israel and Bahrain. This means that the two countries will finally be able to fly nonstop regularly.
Gulf Air will fly from Tel Aviv to
Gulf Air, Bahrain's national airline, announced it would begin flying to Israel. The airline will fly two weekly flights between Bahrain and Tel Aviv starting September 30, 2021. This flight will be operated on Mondays and Wednesdays according to the following schedule.
GF972 Bahrain-Te Aviv departure at 9:00AM, arriving at 11:50AM
GF973 Tel Aviv-Bahrain departures at 3:20PM, arrival at 5:55PM
The flight covers 1,030 miles each way and is stopped at 2hr50min westbound, and 2hr35min Eastbound. The flight numbers have significance. 972 is Israel's country code, and 973 is for Bahrain.
Gulf Air will fly to Tel Aviv
An Airbus A320neo will fly the flight, with a total of 136 seats. There are 16 business and 120 economy seats.
Gulf Air A320neo Business Class
This flight will launch in just a few weeks and it will be one of the first commercially scheduled flights between the two countries. In late 2020, Gulf Air operated a service between Israel and Gulf Air using a Boeing 787-9. This flight was to transport a delegation from the government to sign these agreements. In January 2021, regular scheduled flights were planned. However, this was never to be.
EL AL & Gulf Air could form a partnership
Although we have not heard anything new on this front, in the late 2020s, Gulf Air and EL AL had signed a memorandum on understanding (MOU) to discuss possible codeshare operations between their countries as well as the global networks beyond their hubs.
These airlines are also looking at commercial cooperation in areas such as loyalty, cargo, engineering and travel technology. We have not heard much about it since then. Only time will tell if the new flight launches or if there is no launch.
The truth is that frequent flyer reciprocity does not exist for EL AL or Gulf Air. I would rather earn points with another program than redeem them. Gulf Air does not offer the most value, so I recommend using Air Canada Aeroplan to redeem your miles.
EL AL & Gulf Air might form a partnership
Bottom line
After the signing of a peace accord between the two countries late 2020, Gulf Air will launch flights from Bahrain to Israel on September 30, 2021. EL AL and Gulf Air also plan to cooperate so that frequent flyer reciprocity can be achieved between the two airlines.
It is amazing to see more airlines add service to Israel after these new agreements.
What do you think of Gulf Air's new flight from Bahrain, Israel to Israel?
