Gulf Air to stop flying to four cities

Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air, said on Tuesday it will close down four of its "underperforming" routes citing "commercial reasons", with plans to focus on "higher traffic" routes. The carrier said in a statement it would stop flying to Damascus from March 2 this year, to Athens and Milan from March 12, and to Kuala Lumpur March 25. It added that the move, which follows Gulf Air's recent announcement of closing down Entebbe and Geneva routes earlier this month, comes as the airline seeks to address economic challenges faced in recent times including local and regional political situation, high price of fuel and low passenger numbers. The airline's CEO, Samer Majali, said in a statement that in the current challenging business environment for airlines around the world, these closures are "pragmatic commercial decisions" aimed at "focusing services on routes with higher passenger traffic". "Our commercial strategy, developed in 2009 delivered significant gains in 2010 but last year has been challenging. Therefore, we are now adapting our approach to address the challenges on an urgent basis," he said. The airline stated that the decision was taken to allow the airline to use its fleet and resources in the most efficient way by concentrating on high-demand, high-yield routes to ensure that its core customer base is served effectively.