Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain 14 July 2019: Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, announces that it has appointed Mr. Mohamed Al Hamer as a country manager for its Colombo and Male stations and with this appointment, he will become the youngest ever country manager for Gulf Air in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Al Hamer will represent Gulf Air in Sri Lanka and the Maldives as well as manage the airline’s office in Colombo after gaining extensive knowledge within sales, network and revenue management departments at the headquarters in Bahrain and being trained to pursue this new role. The Sri Lankan capital is served by Gulf Air since 1981, and is one of Gulf Air’s key Indian Subcontinent routes alongside 8 destinations in India, 7 destinations in Pakistan and 1 destination in Bangladesh.

The airline operates five weekly flights to and from Colombo in Sri Lanka and beginning October 26, Colombo will be served via Male in the Maldives. The new country manager will take on the challenge of further strengthening Gulf Air’s growth in the Indian Subcontinent by utilizing the experience gained whilst spending two years in the airline’s Network and Revenue department.

“The most exciting thing about this appointment is that I will get to represent Gulf Air outside its hub.” Mr Al Hamer added at the announcement of his promotion, “Colombo is one of Gulf Air’s main stations in the Indian Subcontinent and it’s popular to leisure travellers from many origins in our network. I am happy to start this challenge and not only promote Colombo but also promote my country to the Sri Lankan audience and encourage inbound travel to Bahrain.”

Gulf Air is committed to invest in its Bahraini workforce and their career development and as such, it continues to provide opportunities for Bahraini nationals to take over senior positions in the company with 90% of employees that are based at the headquarters in Muharraq being Bahraini along with nearly 70% of its pilots. Earlier this year, Gulf Air welcomed back Mr. Rashid Abdulrahman AlGaoud to its headquarters to take on the role of Senior Manager Sales to in charge of the entire Europe and Asia Pacific regions, after serving as the country manager of the United Kingdom for almost six years. Also recently, the airline appointed Ms. Shams AlDosari as the first female Bahraini country manager and is currently representing the national carrier in Ethiopia. Gulf Air is proud that it remains a leader in the Bahrainisation programme in the Kingdom as it provides the opportunity for local talents and experienced personnel to work in its various areas of the airline’s business.