The impossibility of reopening Bahrain Airport in the short term, due to the Gulf War, is extending Gulf Air's temporary offer of flights departing from Dammam International Airport in Saudi Arabia. The third-largest airport in the Saudi kingdom, handling over 13 million passengers in 2025, is indeed 115 km from Bahrain, a 1.5-hour drive.
Iranians have so far not dared to attack Saudi Arabia's civilian aviation infrastructure, which has made it clear that it would intervene militarily if they did. Consequently, since March, Gulf Air has repositioned its aircraft in Dammam, offering flights to a dozen destinations this April. These include, notably, **Paris**, with three flights per week, operated by Boeing 787-9 or Airbus A321neo.
The company also offers connections from Athens and Istanbul (from April 7th and April 11th respectively), Casablanca and London Heathrow. The London flight is the only daily one. Gulf Air offers connections in Dammam to Bangkok, Chennai (Madras), Cairo, Manila, Mumbai (Bombay), Nairobi and Thiruvananthapuram.
Gulf Air provides a land transport service between Bahrain and Dammam for passengers with confirmed bookings on these flights. This includes Saudi transit visas for passengers travelling to and from Bahrain via this airline-arranged service. Passengers travelling to Saudi Arabia as their final destination must, however, hold a valid entry visa obtained independently.
However, with a risk. The Iranians have already threatened to attack the motorway connecting the island of Bahrain to the Arabian Peninsula in the event of destruction of the country's civilian infrastructure by the American army. This Tuesday, April 7, the authority responsible for managing this 25 km long motorway had to close this crossing point for a few hours, following threats…
