Gulf Air, which was still centred on and owned by these three Gulf locations in 2005, did serve served East Africa, to these two lesser points, along with Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Kilimanjaro as well. A320 territory for them, and I think they took a lot of connecting traffic from Europe. Their network has of course somewhat shrunk since. And although many of their flights served two or three Gulf points before going onwards, there was no backtracking, if the order is correct. They were headquartered in Bahrain, registered their aircraft in Muscat, and had maintenance facilities in Abu Dhabi.. It all finally fell apart and they retreated to just Bahrain as a base in the couple of years that followed. Their MD Hogan left to start Etihad in 2006, and then Oman decided to do their own thing at Muscat as well in 2007, all having seen what Emirates had done. The maintenance in Abu Dhabi was sold off as well and became Gamco. It was one of the last places where you could get a Tristar serviced, with their skills from the old Gulf Air fleet.
Last edited by WHBM; 31st Jul 2018 at 21:01.