Airlines Gulf Air and El Al Airlines sign strategic partnership agreement

Gulf Air and El Al Airlines have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) during an official visit from the Kingdom of Bahrain in Israel. At Tel Aviv, Chairman of Gulf Air’s Board of Directors H.E. Mr. Zayed R. Alzayani and Chairman of EL AL Airlines’ Board of Directors Mr. David Brodet signed the agreement.

With the agreement, Gulf Air will launch direct flights to Tel Aviv starting in January next year, subject to government approval. The carrier is expected to perform these flights twice a week.

It is a historic collaboration, as the two countries and airlines have not been working together in the past. Recently, both Governments announced peace between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the State of Israel. Over this course, political, commercial and civil aviation agreements have been signed by the two countries.

With this MOU, first foundations have been founded for future projects like a codeshare agreement between the airlines. Also, a partnership in the global flight network beyond the carrier´s hubs are imaginable in the future.

H.E. Mr. Alzayani commented: “We are delighted to announce the launch of our Bahrain – Tel Aviv route as part of the historic initiation of Bahraini – Israeli relations. As the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain; we take great pride in supporting our leadership and Kingdom in their role of preserving peace and prosperity in the region. We hope this is merely the beginning of developing further aviation opportunities and look forward to work with our friends and colleagues at EL AL and support each other to achieve bigger goals. We trust this new route will promote traffic providing commercial and social gains for both countries, while paving the path for numerous connections to the rest of our networks via the two destinations”.

Mr. Brodet added: "The opportunity to explore potential cooperation with Gulf Air is a direct result of the changes taking place in the region. We at EL AL look forward to seeing how we can offer our passengers new and exciting options - it goes well beyond just the flights but with expanding in the areas of cargo, maintenance and travel technology with EL AL's Cockpit innovation hub. I welcome H.E. Mr. Alzayani to Israel and look forward to visiting Bahrain in the future."

Gulf Air is the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain and was founded 70 years ago in 1950. Currently the airline is operating with 31 aircraft, including 11 Airbus A320ceos, six A320neos, six A321ceos, one A321neo and seven Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.

El Al Airlines is the national carrier of Israel and commenced operation in 1948. The current fleet consists of 16 Boeing 737-800s, four 737-900s, six 777-200s, three 787-8s and 12 787-9s.