Major Middle East carrier, Gulf Air, today announced that it would introduce operations to Bangalore and Kolkata in its winter schedule.

With the addition of these two passenger destinations, the airline will be operating 58 flights per week from the current 54.

The twice-weekly Bangalore flight would start from October 26 and another twice-weekly service from Kolkata from November 25, Gulf Air president and chief executive James Hogan said. The airline will be offering 10,967 seats per week after the addition.

The airline is also in talks with the government for launching an all economy, full-service flights of its subsidiary Gulf Traveller to certain Indian destinations such as Kochi. The subsidiary already operates to some Indian destinations such as Thiruvananthapuram and Mumbai.

Besides Kolkata and Bangalore, Gulf Air operates daily flights to Mumbai, Delhi, Kochi, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram.

Gulf Air has entered into a commercial agreement with Indian Airlines for its Kolkata operations and a code-share arrangement with Indian Airlines for the Bangalore flights.
 
"We are in talks with Air-India for developing certain routes. It could be a special pro rata agreement or a codeshare. If the two Indian carriers are interested in promoting any route, their proposals would also be welcomed," Hogan said, adding that a joint committee set up with A-I meets twice a year for talks on such issues.

The airline would launch an Athens-Bahrain-Singapore-Sydney flight on November 23 in which the Singapore-Sydney section was in codeshare with A-I.