Gulf Air confident that Muscat Festival will provide impetus for another record breaking year

Jaffar Juma, Gulf Air's Manager for Oman, who recently revealed a 34.3 per cent increase in passenger traffic at Seeb International Airport for 2004, says the special fare offers from around the GCC has already attracted a great deal of interest.

'The Muscat Festival can provide Gulf Air with just the start in needs in its effort to grow passenger traffic for a third consecutive year and contribute to the corporate goal of achieving profitability in 2005,' he said. 'At the same time we are delighted to give the Government's tourism efforts a significant boost through our sponsorship and special fare offers.'

With the 2005 Muscat Festival bigger and better than ever before, Gulf Air, a main sponsor of the event, which runs from 21 January to 18 February 2005, is marketing the destination extensively around the network.

'While we are offering special fares for GCC residents, the attractions of Muscat Festival form an integral part of our European and Far East marketing programmes,' he said. 'Load factors on our non stop service from London are particularly encouraging over the next four weeks.'

Gulf Air is offering a 50 per cent discount on all economy fares and 25 per cent off first and business class fares from Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dammam, Doha, Kuwait and Riyadh to Muscat.

John Butler, Vice President, Marketing and Sales says the promotion of the region and specifically Gulf Air's owner states remains high on the airline's agenda.

'Since Gulf Air embarked on its recovery programme more than two years ago, we have worked hard on a wide range of initiatives and programmes to promote the economic development of the region, most specifically in the development of tourism. The Muscat Festival provides another great opportunity to show our commitment to the region and in particular Oman.'

Butler added that Gulf Air has continuously supported all its owner states through sponsorship of a wide range of events including in 2004, Al Ain Air Show, the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix and in Abu Dhabi, the inaugural Abu Dhabi World Sand Golf Championships.

'The Festival is sure to attract a large local, regional and international audience which in turn will provide a great opportunity to showcase this unique country,' he said. 'At Gulf Air we want to help unlock the door and encourage more people to come and sample the delights of Muscat and its unique hospitality - a quality for which we are famous.'

Butler also said that Gulf Air was well placed to achieve this goal - not only through the special deals it is offering, but also through Gulf Air Holidays. The division has developed a wide range of holiday packages, which allow easy access to Oman from around the region and further a field.

'These packages are available to suit every budget,' he said. 'No one has a better regional network than Gulf Air and therefore we can provide by the far best connectivity into Oman and I am confident that given the success of last year's event we can help build on this in 2005.'