Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, recently invited over 100 travel agents to a dinner and ceremony at the Grand Nile Tower in which official recognition was given to the airline's top 10 Egypt-based travel agents - Metro Travel, Overseas Tours, Abu Samra Travel, Thomas Cook, Travco, Ittatours, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Meir Travel, Astra Travel and American Express. The event was aimed at providing travel agents with the latest information on the airline's various services and commercial initiatives including the 2012 summer flight schedule and latest sales promotions, while celebrating their continued support for the airline and giving them an opportunity to spend an evening in a relaxing environment with other members of the travel trade. Key dignitaries attending the event included guest of honor, Bahraini Ambassador to Egypt H.E. Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa who expressed his support of the Kingdom of Bahrain's national carrier. Gulf Air Egypt Country Manager, Mr. Ahmed Ali Ramadhan thanked the travel agents for their continuous support to Gulf Air business and gave an overview of the airline's latest products and services and various commercial initiatives to support them. The evening ended with a raffle in which six winners were awarded free Gulf Air tickets and complimentary internet usage onboard. Gulf Air recently developed a series of commercial initiatives tailored to the Egypt market. These include the Falcon Corporate Plus Programme for corporates and SMEs, the ‘Falcon Flyer' Programme which offers members attractive privileges and value added benefits such as bonus miles up to 250%, guaranteed seats, priority baggage handling, half miles redemption and family membership, and ‘Family First' - competitively priced packages for travelling families, offering special privileges both on the ground and in the air. The carrier was recently awarded the Family Friendly Airline Award 2012 based on its ‘Family First' initiative which includes the introduction of dedicated Sky Nannies for family travellers. Gulf Air has also just seen its Falcon Gold Bahrain Airport Lounge reopen following extensive refurbishment and the introduction of flatbed seats on some of its aircraft. In a world first, Gulf Air introduced SkyHub in 2011 allowing passengers to browse the web at broadband speeds and access social media services such as Facebook and Twitter while onboard. In addition, business travelers can access their virtual private network (VPN) to send and receive emails while watching live news and stock market updates at 35,000 feet. Gulf Air's 10 weekly flights between Cairo and Bahrain provide excellent connectivity via Bahrain to key destinations in the Gulf, the Indian sub-continent and the Far East such as Dubai, UAE, Bangkok, Thailand and Delhi, India in less than two hours.
