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.
In this post:
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?
I’d be interested in an article on where the other Middle East airlines are stashing their planes. There were 5 QR 777s at MEL this afternoon and another 777 and an a380 at SYD when I landed. However the 5 or 6 EK A380s that were at Sydney last week seem to have gone along with the EY aircraft that were there.
Well stuffed fuel prices up for the whole world...
Lindesy Graham said Saudi Arabia you are with us or be prepared to suffer the consequences. This type of " tough talk " will only rip apart the fragile relationships we have left. God help us.
Wait, the same Lindsey Graham who’s always feuding with his Mee-Maw on Late Night with Seth Meyers, that Lindsey Graham?? Sheesh!
Gosh. The same dude with the orange lips? Idk. Apparently he is trying to insert himself into making this mess more difficult for everyone.
MSB in Saudia Arabia would laugh at powder-puff Lindsey Graham's 'threats'!
He'd eat him for breakfast, but I guess he would quite enjoy that....
This subject is completely academic unless one is trying to fly to the ME, yes?
Click-bait only, however, clicks do lead to flight reviews …. :-)
'Guest' Aero-baiting on here, again... ;-)
Thought of this since past week, Emirates/Etihad can also setup temporary "hub" in Oman, Muscat or even better Salalah, and bus the passengers to those airports
Unfortunately, Oman got attacked today, too, so no where in the region is 'clear' for now.
Unlike Dammam, one of the largest airports in the world in terms of overall area, Muscat and Salalah have very limited space to accommodate foreign aircraft.
Damn, ‘mam!
(Sorry, can’t resist…)
Other gulf airlines like Jazeera, Kuwait and Qatar have also started operating out of Saudi airports, they then move their passengers by land.
US and Israel need to be kicked out of the Middle East.
P.S. Release the Epstein files, orange chump.
Read your childhood history books BZ, you might learn one very important fact about Isreal. For millions of years numerous tribes and nations have tried to chase the Jewish people off their land. All have failed, but none so spectacular as your failure to gain support from the thinking people who follow this website.
Antisemites do not rule herein, OK!
Has Israel chosen the next Jeffrey Epstein yet?
Why did every living ex-chief of Mossad attend the funeral of Epstein's father?
You’re thinking of Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, Robert Maxwell, who was a rich, influential Jew. It’s no surprise that the who’s who of Israeli government attended his funeral, which took place in Israel. Perhaps you should look further afield than The Militant and the Socialist Worker for the news and information you rely upon to write your unhinged rants?
It was Ghislaine Maxwell's father, BZ, not Epstein's. Not that it matters to the likes of you, since all Jews are equally evil, right? Whatever you're huffing, you should stop. It's melted your brain.
No one was chasing anyone out of anywhere "millions of years" ago.
Why don't these countries kick our bases out and chart their own destinations.
Furthermore Jazeera airways in Kuwait is now operating the hub out of Qaisumah–Hafar Al-Batin International Airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia. This is barely across the border from kuwait who's airspace is also still completely closed.
They are only operating to Egypt and Amman at the moment
Furthermore Kuwait airways is only offering limited flights to Dammam as well
Emirates is operating the most flights, by far. It is operating flights to 7 cities in the US including 2 to JFK. They established a nice flight corridor over Saudi Arabia.
I wonde how DXB operates dozens of flights a day while Qatar and Bahrain don't. How is their airspace safer?
Some more drones were intercepted this morning near DXB…
I wonder if it's to do with the flights paths that they can take. Doha and Bahrain have a real issue in that all flights near to use the persian gulf to land/take off due to the direction of the runways. The flights arriving and leaving DXB seem to be able to fly in/out of actual land, I guess this makes i much easier/possible to create corridors of safety?
All DXB/AUH arrive from the south over-land. Departures take a sharp left hand turn 500ft above ground so they don't fly over water. And most flights don't switch on their transponders till they're at higher altitude and clear of the immediate airspace around the airport.
Doing this kind of operations in Kuwait, Bahrain, and Doha is almost impossible as you have to be over water for a significant amount of the departure and arrival part.
Kuwait, Bahrain, and Doha are also much closer to Iranian military positions so drone attacks have less reaction time compared to DXB/AUH
So why is DOH still operating while BAH isn't.
Both have military bases, even Saudi has military operations.
Is DOH actually operating? DXB starts and stops as it literally keeps getting hit by drones… insane.
DOH is not operating, there has just 15 evacuation flights a day only from yesterday instead of the usual 400.
Exactly. That's what I thought, Nic123. Nothing 'normal' about DOH these days. At all.