Gulf Air, which operates daily flights between Bahrain/Saudi Arabia and Beirut, has changed its flight schedule due to popular demand from its customers. Effective July 14, one daily flight departs from Bahrain at 11.30 a.m. reaching Beirut at 2.25 p.m. It departs Beirut at 3.10 p.m. reaches Bahrain at 5.55 p.m. Earlier, the airline operated a split schedule with flights leaving early morning on certain days and evenings on other days during the week. With the revised schedule, customers from Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh will have enough time to travel to Bahrain to catch the flight to Beirut. The airline will also be using an Airbus 320 to accommodate more passengers instead of the current mixed fleet of A319 and Embraer. “Since we resumed flights to Beirut last month, we have seen a dramatic increase in bookings,” said Gulf Air area Commercial Manager Abdulmalik Al-Saei. “However, a majority of the members of the Saudi business community, particularly those from the Eastern Province, as well as regular holiday-makers felt that a late morning flight would be more convenient for them to travel to Bahrain to catch the flight. The new timing is also very convenient for people checking into hotels on arrival in Beirut.” Al-Saei said customers traveling from Beirut to Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh now have faster connections in Bahrain. Gulf Air operates several flights per day between Bahrain and Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh providing excellent connectivity to Beirut and other destinations via Bahrain.
NASAIR
Lifting off from Jeddah at 21:00, nasair recently marked the smart airline’s first flight on its new route to Islamabad, Pakistan. The destination is being served by nasair’s Airbus A320 a young aircraft designed to fly its passengers in comfort and safety. This first flight marked the beginning of nasair’s efficient service for passengers traveling between Saudi Arabia and Islamabad. On this flight, the airline provided passengers with a full spectrum of nasair’s smart services including competitive fares, online booking, seat selection, online excess baggage services and the onboard nasair café. The XY 833 flight marked an auspicious initiation for nasair’s new destination. Turki Al-Jawini, deputy chief commercial officer, said: “Islamabad is the latest addition to our Pakistan routes. Serving the pivotal market in Pakistan’s capital city is an effort that our airline is proud of. We are continuing to be the smart choice for travel to the continually expanding Pakistani expat community traveling between the Kingdom and their home country. By offering on-time, friendly flights to Karachi, Lahore and now Islamabad, we are able to truly serve all passengers. We are committed to being the smart airline, and ultimately we live our commitment by fortifying the bridge that exists between these two countries with nasair’s reliable offerings.”
British Airways has further revised its winter schedule to include daily flights from Riyadh instead of the six it had earlier announced. And with its five services a week from Jeddah, British Airways will operate 12 flights between Saudi Arabia and London Heathrow by end October. The Riyadh service will be served using a Boeing 777 offering a choice of four cabins that includes the award winning Club World (business class) and the airlines flagship cabin, First. Paolo De Renzis, regional commercial manager, Middle East, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the demand from the Saudi Arabian market since we resumed flights two years ago. Our countries share a great affinity and passengers are traveling for a wide variety of reasons from tourism to business to education. In response to this continuously growing demand, we quickly realized that the additional one flight a week from Riyadh, announced just over a month ago, wasn’t going to be sufficient. So, instead of adding one flight, we’ve decided to increase it to two, resulting in a daily service throughout the week from Riyadh beginning in end-October this year. This move is re-affirmation of our long-term commitment of serving our loyal customers in the Kingdom and reinforcing the brand as the preferred carrier of choice for travel into the UK or for transiting to other destinations in the extensive British Airways network.”
Chevrolet sold 2.35 million vehicles globally in the first six months of 2011, the best half-year performance in Chevrolet’s 100-year history. “Founded in the US by a Swiss émigré, Chevrolet was created with a global focus,” said Joel Ewanick, GM global chief marketing officer. “One hundred years later, Louis Chevrolet’s roots continue to shape our company, and enable Chevrolet to offer great products and service to customers in more than 120 countries around the world. We will continue to work at bringing new customers to the Chevy family — no matter where they live.” Chevrolet sold 286,499 more vehicles in the first half of 2011 than the same time period of 2010, a 14 percent increase year over year. In addition, Chevrolet set record first-half sales in many countries, including: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, South Africa, and Turkey. For the first half of 2011, Chevrolet recorded sales gains in all of its top five markets. The potential for Chevrolet’s continued growth is demonstrated in the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia and China. Much of Chevrolet’s global growth can be attributed to the wave of new models, such as the Chevrolet Cruze compact car, Spark mini car, all-new Aveo/Sonic small car, and Orlando MPV. They will soon be joined globally by the all-new Chevrolet Malibu midsize car, and the all-new Colorado compact pickup.
