Effective March 29th, Gulf Air is withdrawing its flights from Bahrain to Bangalore and to Hyderabad. No explanation has been provided by the airline, but I suspect that they have been crowded out by the far more aggressive Emirates Airlines.

Gulf Air flies a small Airbus A320 to Bangalore daily and a slightly larger A321 to Hyderabad four times a week, while Emirates flies three Boeing 777s/A330s daily to both cities.

Having overtaken European and ASEAN carriers, this is the first case of a fellow middle east airline feeling the pressure of the relentless expansion by Emirates across the Indian skies.

On the same date, March 29th Jet Airways will launch its Mumbai Kuwait service which complements their existing Kochi (Cochin) Kuwait service.

Mumbai-Kuwait: 9W 572 Dep 1900 hrs. Arr 2030 hrs.
Kuwait-Mumbai: 9W 571 Dep 2130 hrs. Arr 0400 hrs.

Obviously there is more traffic between Kochi and Kuwait, since even the Mumbai Kuwait service will offer convenient connections to the Mumbai Kochi services of Jet.

Ten days ago, on March 3rd, Gulf Air received the first of the four Boeing 777-300ER (VT-JEG) aircraft leased from Jet Airways. Two more aircraft are expected to join the Gulf Air fleet later this month while the fourth one will join in May.

The 312 seat uber-luxurious Jet Airways Boeing's are well known. See a photo gallery of the interiors here.


Photographer Antony Best caught VT-JEG painted in the Gulf Air livery at London's Heathrow airport early in the morning of March 12th. Please note the image above is copyright of A.J. Best. Bangalore Aviation has taken permission for its use, my thanks to Mr. Best. Use this image only after obtaining permission of Mr. Best.

Skyliners has a similar image here. User Allan has an image, but the registration number appears to be doctored. The aircraft still retains its Indian registration VT-JEG.

I find the Gulf Air livery one of the most beautiful in the world. What is your opinion ? Share a comment.

Bahrain based Gulf Air has confirmed an agreement to lease four new Boeing 777-300ERs (B77W in industry parlance) from Jet Airways of India. The agreement which was signed on February 22nd, calls for three aircraft to join its fleet in March, and the fourth in May.

This deal was expected since January. Gulf Air is already wet-leasing two Airbus A330-200s from Jet on a temporary basis. Gulf Air was looking to replace its A340-300s with larger capacity B77Ws. Jet Airways has been actively leasing out most of its 11 award winning, uber-luxurious Boeing 777-300ERs in a desperate bid to stem the losses bleeding the airline.

Jet Airways has already leased out four B77Ws to Turkish THY Airlines, and with these four to Gulf Air, it will be left with just three aircraft in its fleet. Since Jet Airways sources confirmed to me they will operate four aircraft, two on the Mumbai London Heathrow route and one on the Delhi London Heathrow route, and one aircraft to be kept in the rotation, I can surmise that one more aircraft is expected to join the Jet fleet.

Jet Airways recently firmed up a deal to lease two A330-200s to Oman Air.

With an award winning cabin product like First Class suites, and herring-bone lie flat business class, these B77Ws will give Gulf Air an immediate product which can compete head-on with neighbours Emirates and Etihad in the luxury category. Gulf Air has indicated these aircraft will be used for services to several destinations such as London Heathrow, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur as well as within the Middle East.

Jet officials claim the four 777-300ERs will be leased to Gulf Air for 42 months. The reports say the aircraft will be on wet-lease for the first six months, after which they will revert to dry leases. I only hope that Gulf Air looks after the aircraft well, a reputation which Turkish THY Airlines sadly lacks.

The ultra luxurious Boeing 777-300ER of Jet Airways, which have also been leased to Turkish Airlines THY and Gulf Air. I hope you enjoy the images of the luxury on offer in these aircraft, for those lucky to travel in the Business class or First class suites.



Talks are on with Oman Air, but it is unknown whether Jet is offering its 777s or its Airbus A330-200s.

Click on the images for a larger view.

Seat Map
Business Class

First Class suites

As usual your comments are requested and welcome.

Jet Airways procured ten ultra-luxuriously appointed Boeing 777-300ERs for its ambitious international expansion. It even won awards for its international first class, featuring private suites.

Now those plans are in tatters, and Jet has abandoned its international ambitions, at least for the foreseeable future. Recently TravelBizMonitor reported

Jet Airways, has dropped its expansion plan, especially plans of expanding overseas informed a top official source of the airline. “We have dropped plans for overseas expansion for the time being. Now our focus will be on consolidation. In the domestic markets also, we are reducing capacity. We are also going slow on the acquisition of new aircraft,” said the source. As part of their cost-cutting plan, Jet Airways may also resort to leasing out their fleet.

Jet Airways/Turkish THY/Gulf Air
Boeing 777-300ER seat map.
The "may lease out its fleet" is already an "is leasing out its fleet". Turkish Airlines THY is already reaping the benefit of the three 777s it has leased from Jet. THY has been enjoying unprecedented success with its 777, and a possible fourth Jet 777 is rumoured expected to join THY soon.

Now, Business Traveller and Air Transport Intelligence are reporting, Bahrain based, Gulf Air is expected to lease four Jet Airways Boeing 777-300ERs, which it will introduce on routes including London Heathrow from March.

Gulf Air chief executive Bjorn Naf has said the carrier would take all four 312-seat 777s this year, and lease them for around three years. While Naf declined to identify the source of the aircraft, it is certainly Jet Airways. Gulf Air has already leased two Airbus A330s from Jet Airways, which has also been actively seeking to lease out its 777-300ERs to generate desperately needed cash.

The 777s would potentially serve as a replacement for a few of Gulf Air's current A340-300s.

It is unclear whether the aircraft will be "wet leased" i.e. along with the crew, as in the case of Turkish THY, or a "dry" aircraft only lease.

Jet Airways has seven Boeing 777-300ERs and nine Airbus A330-200s left in its fleet after the first round of leases to Gulf and THY. After this Gulf Air deal, it will have only three 777s left in its fleet. That will surely require some more route and capacity rationalisation by Jet on its existing international operations. Talks with Oman Air for lease of Jet Airways aircraft, are also expected to fructify very soon, and passengers in India can expect to bid adieu to Jet Airways from the international skies.

In a repeat of THY, Gulf Air’s premium passengers are in for a treat, as Jet’s product includes fully flat beds in business class and private suites in first. (View a photo gallery of the premium classes)

After years of watching its rivals Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, expand their fleets with superior cabin aircraft, which forced a further contraction at Gulf Air, the airline will now be able to mount a serious challenge.

In addition to the Bahrain - London Heathrow route, Gulf Air is considering using the 777s on Bahrain - Bangkok and Bahrain - Kuala Lumpur routes. The 777s will also afford Gulf Air the possibility of serving the US east coast.

Incidentally, today is Makar Sankranti, a festival that signifies the beginning of the harvest season for the farmers of Indian Sub-Continent, and the only Hindu festival celebrated by the solar calendar. All other festivals are by the lunar calendar. Happy Sankranti to all Bangalore Aviation readers.

In a second incident involving a commercial jet mishap at a major airport in just about twelve hours, as per Reuters, a Continental Airlines Boeing 737 plane went off the runway and caught fire at Denver International Airport at 18:18 December 20, (01:18 GMT December 21).

Less than 12 hours earlier, at 13:51 GMT, December 20, a Gulf Air Airbus 321 plane caught fire at Mumbai airport.

None of the injuries at Denver were life-threatening, but the injured passengers were taken to area hospitals, as per DIA spokesperson, Kim Day at a news conference, but CBS Denver is reporting one critical injury.

As in Mumbai, Denver airport reported significant flight delays after the crash, as some runways were shut down.

There were 112 passengers and crew on flight CO 1404, which was taking off Denver International Airport for Houston.

It wasn't immediately known why the plane crashed, but the right side of the plane caught fire after it landed in a ravine between two runways on the west side of the airfield. Denver assistant fire chief Steve Garrod said the plane "crashed, caught fire" and flames extended into the cabin. He said the right wing was cracked, as was the fuselage.

Despite freezing temperatures, officials felt "ice was not a factor".

PTI reports, the engine of a Gulf Air Airbus A321 aircraft with 124 passengers and nine crew caught fire a few minutes prior to its take-off today, disrupting flight operations at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai, for about an hour.

"The engine of the Bahrain-bound Gulf Air flight GF 065 caught fire just when it was lined up for departure," a spokeperson for airport operator Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) said, adding that all the people on board the plane are safe.

The aircraft was scheduled to take-off at 19:21 (13:51 GMT)

Immediately, apron control and fire officials rushed to the runway and put out the fire, the spokesperson said.

As a result of the incident, two Air India flights scheduled to land had to make a"go-around" and circle in the skies for some time before the airport could resume full operations.

An Air India official said one of its Chennai-Mumbai flights was diverted to Pune in addition to a Delhi-Mumbai and Bangkok-Mumbai flight being forced to make a "go-around".

Jet Airways will lease out aircraft that have been rendered surplus following the route rationalisation and cost pruning.

The airline recently entered into a Wet-Lease Agreement with Gulf Air Company G S C, Bahrain, for leasing out two A330-200 aircraft for four months.

It has also entered into similar agreement with THY Turkish Airlines Inc, for leasing out three B777-300 ER aircraft for six months.

Under wet lease agreement the operational control and maintenance responsibility will remain with Jet Airways. The aircraft will remain on Indian registry and will be operated with Jet Airways crews.

As per my earlier analysis, Jet Airways will now be short of aircraft to sustain their Bangalore Brussels flight, and so Bangalore will loose this flight.

I can only wish that Jet Airways CEO Mr. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer and the senior management team at Jet, give Bangalore the level of loyalty they are receiving in return, and not surrender the skies to the foreign carriers.