Gulf Air

1949–1973: Gulf Aviation

In the late 1940s, Freddie Bosworth, a British pilot and entrepreneur, began an air taxi service to Doha and Dhahran from Bahrain, registering the Gulf Aviation Company Limited on 24 March 1950. In October 1951, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) became a major shareholder in Gulf Aviation, holding a 22% stake through the BOAC subsidiary company BOAC Associated Companies. By the early 1970s, Gulf Aviation's fleet included three Fokker F27 and two BAC 1-11 aircraft, serving destinations such as Bahrain, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Kuwait. Their timetable also included twice-weekly flights to London, although these were operated by BOAC Vickers VC10.

1974: Gulf Air established

In 1973, the governments of the Emirate (now Kingdom) of Bahrain, the State of Qatar, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the Sultanate of Oman agreed to purchase the BOAC Associated Companies holding in Gulf Aviation. The Foundation Treaty was signed on 1 January 1974 and gave each government a 25% shareholding in Gulf Aviation, which became a holding company. The operating company was now branded as Gulf Air and became the flag carrier for the four states. Gulf Air inherited a variety of aircraft from Gulf Aviation, repainting them with new titles and colour scheme, and transferring them to the A4O- register. But most significantly, they gained five ex-BOAC Vickers VC10s, allowing them to commence a full schedule with flights on every day of the week to London, and also regular services new destinations such as Bombay, Karachi, Amman, Cairo, Beirut and Athens.

With Lockheed L-1011 Tristar and Boeing 737 aircraft joining the fleet, by 1976, Gulf Air had expanded its route network to include Amman, Amsterdam, Athens, Baghdad, Bombay, Bangkok, Beirut, Cairo, Colombo, Delhi, Dhaka, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Karachi, Khartoum, Larnaca, Manila, Paris, Ras al-Khaimah and Sanaa. As more Lockheed L-1011s and Boeing 737-200s arrived, the VC10s and BAC One-Elevens were phased out.

1980s–1992: expansion

The 1980s saw an increase in air travel and growth for Gulf Air. In 1981, Gulf Air became an IATA member, and in the following year, it became the first international airline to land at Riyadh. In 1985, Emirates, the airline of the Emirate of Dubai, began operating. During their first year of operations, Gulf Air profits fell 30%, prompting the airline to drop its privatization plans. In 1986, Gulf Air posted a loss.

In 1988, Boeing 767s joined the fleet, and the airline commenced services to Frankfurt, Istanbul, Damascus, Dar es Salaam, Fujairah and Nairobi, and resumed services to Shiraz and Baghdad.

Whilst the VC10s were painted in the original Gulf Air livery (green/maroon brown/red stripes all along the fuselage and then sweeping up the tail), the arrival of the Lockheed L1011 TriStar in 1976 brought a new 'Golden Falcon' colour scheme featuring a predominantly white fuselage, with tri-coloured flashes on the nose, and a large golden falcon on the tail fin. This livery was used on the following types: Lockheed L1011-200 TriStar (1976), Boeing 737-200 (1977), Boeing 767-300ER (1988), Airbus A320-200 (1992), Airbus A340-300 (1994) and Airbus A330-200 (1999), but was also applied to at least some of the VC10s in their last few months of service.

Gulf Air celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1990. The light-blue and peach Balenciaga-designed uniform was introduced. Services to Singapore, Sydney and Thiruvananthapuram were launched, making Gulf Air the first Arab airline to fly to Australia. Gulf Air added services to Johannesburg and Melbourne in 1992, becoming the first Arab airline to fly directly to these cities. In 1993, it opened a flight-simulator centre in Qatar and introduced service to Casablanca, Entebbe, Jakarta, Kilimanjaro, Madras, Rome, San'a', Zanzibar and Zürich.

1993–2005: new livery and destinations

In May 1994, Gulf Air received its first Airbus A340-300. Two months later, the carrier began flights to New York City using an A340. The Gulf Air website was opened in January 1997, and New York services were discontinued the following month. A no-smoking policy was established in 1998 on flights to Singapore and Australia, which was later introduced on all flights. In 1999, Gulf Air launched three new routes in northern Pakistan: Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar. It also took delivery of two Airbus A330-200 aircraft, and introduced a new uniform designed by Balmain.

In 2000, the airline celebrated its 50th anniversary. It took delivery of the remaining Airbus A330-200 aircraft in June, and launched services to Milan. Later in August 2000, Gulf Air Flight 072, operating on a flight from Cairo to Bahrain was involved in a fatal crash which resulted in 143 deaths.

In May 2002, James Hogan became president and CEO of Gulf Air and instigated a restructuring and turnaround programme in response to a drastic fall in profits and increasing debt. By 1 August 2002, Qatar announced its intentions to withdraw from Gulf Air to focus on its own national airline, Qatar Airways.