It has been a rough 11 days globally, but particularly in the Middle East, ever since the United States and Israel attacked Iran, only to have Iran respond by firing endless missiles at nearby countries. While Gulf carriers have had their operations greatly impacted, Bahrain-based Gulf Air has probably faced the strictest restrictions. The airline is now coming up with a creative way to relaunch operations, rather than just fully remaining grounded.
Gulf Air flies its fleet of aircraft out of Bahrain
On February 28, 2026, the small Gulf nation of Bahrain fully closed its airspace to commercial traffic, meaning that national carrier Gulf Air has been fully shut down. Presumably this is because the United States has a large military base there, making it a possible target.
Given the number of attacks we’ve seen, Gulf Air has been wanting to fly its aircraft out of Bahrain to minimize risk, but even that hasn’t been possible due to the closed airspace. So there’s now an interesting update — on the evening of Tuesday, March 11, 2026, Bahrain briefly opened its airspace.
However, this wasn’t in order to operate flights with passengers, but instead, to allow Gulf Air, and any other airlines, to fly their aircraft out of the country.
Interestingly, it appears that most Gulf Air planes have been moved to Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia (ULH). That’s 776 miles from Bahrain (BAH), and it’s located in northwestern Saudi Arabia, so I suspect the logic is that the airline views this as a much lower risk place to send its aircraft.
That’s the case both in terms of Iran being less likely to attack Saudi Arabia, and also in terms of this being in a part of Saudi Arabia that’s less likely to be attacked, given distance from Iran.
Gulf Air sets up temporary “hub” in Dammam
Gulf Air now has a plan to resume service, though not necessarily in the way that you’d expect. Effective immediately, the airline is setting up a temporary mini-hub in Dammam, Saudi Arabia (DMM). This will allow the airline to offer consistent but limited services from there to Bangkok (BKK), London (LHR), and Mumbai (BOM).
Gulf Air will also be flying its planes that are currently at outstations to Saudi Arabia, in part to operate these flights. For context, Dammam is just across the bridge connecting Bahrain to Saudi Arabia, and it’s a roughly one-hour drive between the two cities, so transportation between the two places should be relatively straightforward.
Here’s how Gulf Air describes these flights:
Gulf Air will be supporting passengers with an opportunity to travel during the temporary closure of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s airspace by operating special flights to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from select destinations across its network. Flights are available to book for passengers who meet the eligibility criteria.
If you wish to book on any of these special flights, please register your details in the passenger registration form and a sales agent will contact you shortly. Passengers are kindly requested not to proceed to their departure airport unless they have received confirmation on their booking.
Bottom line
While all airlines in the Gulf region have had a very rough month so far, Gulf Air has been faced with among the biggest restrictions, as Bahrain has completely closed its airspace. For a brief period yesterday, airspace was opened so that planes could be moved out of the country, largely to Saudi Arabia. At the same time, Gulf Air is setting up a hub out of Dammam, so that it can operate some essential service.
Gulf Air is obviously subject to some cautious policies and is trying to make the best of this situation, so the carrier’s approach seems sensible. All signs point toward this conflict not being over anytime soon, so I’m curious to see how this all plays out…
What do you make of Gulf Air’s current situation?
