Gulf Air and Philippine Airlines (PAL) have entered into a historic partnership following the forming of a code-sharing arrangement on selected routes to the Middle East and other destinations.
The partnership was announced in a joint Press conference conducted by Gulf Air President and Chief Executive James Hogan and PAL President and Chief Operating Officer Jaime Bautista at the Shangri-La Hotel, Makati.
Under the code-sharing arrangement, PAL can sell tickets using the codes (i.e. flight designator or flight number) of Gulf Air to certain destinations in the Middle East where it does not fly to, but which are being currently served by Gulf Air.
As part of the agreement, Gulf Air will allocate certain number of seats in its flights for PAL passengers bound for Bahrain, Oman and other countries where PAL has no flights.
The new arrangement will help the two airlines operate more efficiently and reduce operation costs. “Code-sharing arrangements offer significant economic and consumer benefits. They give passengers price and service options,” says Hogan.
PAL passengers will now be able to experience Gulf Air’s world-class amenities and services, including its ‘sky nanny’ service and ‘five-star restaurant in the sky.’
The agreement enables Philippine Airlines to code share on Gulf Air's Bahrain-Manila-Bahrain and Muscat- Manila-Muscat sectors with Gulf Air operating six flights a week between Bahrain and Manila and one flight per week between Bahrain-Muscat-Manila.
Gulf Air already has code-sharing agreements with American Airlines, Thai Airways, BMI, Cyprus Airways, Egyptair, Garuda Indonesia, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, KLM, Olympic Airlines, Oman Air, Qantas Airways, Royal Jordanian Airlines, and Middle East Airlines.
© 2006 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
