British Airways is planning to resume direct flights between Bahrain and England early next month with a timely boost for tourism and business between the two countries slowly emerging from the Covid-19 crisis.

This will add competition into the market place as national carrier Gulf Air has continued to operate a limited but fairly frequent service between Bahrain International Airport and London’s Heathrow in recent months.

“We’re planning to resume direct flights from Bahrain to London from October 2,” a BA spokesman said, “although this is subject to change and dependent on the situation.

“We’re working closely with the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office to ensure we adhere to government regulations.”

Both Bahrain and the UK have suffered spikes in the number of positive virus cases in recent days and are working to tackle the immediate situation on both shores with preventative policies and a call for community consideration.

The UK currently insists on a 14-day home isolation for travellers from Bahrain and in the kingdom arrivals from the UK have to take a Covid-19 test at the airport and 10 days afterwards have a second test at the medical centre in Sanabis to check they are clear.

British Airways’ flights to the Gulf date back to 1932 and the pre-World War II services featured flying boat operations, run by predecessor airline, Imperial Airways that continued into the post-war years.

BOAC, another of the British Airways predecessor airlines, launched a Bristol Britannia service in 1959 which served a number of Gulf destinations, including Bahrain.

On January 21, 1976, there was another historical flight between London and Bahrain – the first scheduled commercial passenger flight by a British Airways Concorde. The British-French turbojet-powered supersonic passenger airliner operated until 2003. It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound, at Mach 2.04 (1,354 mph or 2,180 km/h at cruise altitude), with seating for 92 to 128 passengers.

Many celebrities used the service. Famously, singer Shirley Bassey travelled to Bahrain on Concorde for a fleeting visit to the kingdom in the 1970s.

She was collected by a Rolls-Royce at the airport and taken to Sakhir Palace to perform and then on to Adhari pool to sing before returning to the supersonic jet for a flight back to London in time to open her show at the London Palladium. Now aged 83, Dame Shirley performed the theme songs to three James Bond films – Goldfinger (1964), Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Moonraker (1979).

More recently, British Airways says it demonstrated its unwavering support to the region by being the first European airline to resume flights to the Middle East after the Gulf War in 1991.

editor@gdnonline.com

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