Bahrain’s Gulf Air adds maiden A321neo

Gulf Air (GF, Bahrain Int’l) took delivery of its first A321-200NX on August 21, 2020, and is planning to debut the type’s revenue operations imminently. A9C-NA (msn 9433) was ferried directly from Hamburg Finkenwerder to Bahrain Int’l on August 21. It is the first of a total of seventeen A321-200neo ordered by Gulf Air directly from the manufacturer, including nine A321-200NX(LR)s. The Bahraini flag carrier already operates five A320-200Ns and has a further seven of the type on order from Airbus. According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Gulf Air plans to debut the A321neo in the coming days on its Bahrain-Frankfurt Int’l route, initially deploying the aircraft to Germany 3x weekly. Going forward, Gulf Air plans to use the A321neo on routes to Dammam, Dubai Int’l, Kuwait, Paris CDG, and Riyadh. The carrier’s older generation narrowbody fleet consists of thirteen A320-200s and six A321-200s.