Flights between Qatar and Bahrain resumed on Thursday, after six year hiatus following the Gulf crisis in 2017.
The resumption comes, about a month after Qatar and Bahrain announced, in a joint statement, their decision to “restore diplomatic relations” between them, after two months of talks hosted by the Saudi capital, Riyadh, regarding the differences between Doha and Manama.
According to the updated schedule on the websites of the two airlines, they are scheduled to launch one daily flight each, which is approximately seven times less than before the suspension of flights, when the two companies were launching 93 flights per week in both directions.
Taking to Twitter, Qatar Airways said, that it will increase the number of flights to 3 flights per day, starting from June 15.
From June 15, Gulf Air will also increase its flights between Gulf countries to three flights per day with flights bound for Doha.
Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut off relations with Qatar in 2017, accusing it of supporting Islamist movements that its neighbors consider dangerous, and also because of Doha’s relations with Iran and Turkey.
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt in January 2021 ended a three-and-a-half-year ban on Qatar. But Bahrain restored travel and trade links in 2021.
Riyadh and Cairo were the first to reappoint ambassadors to Doha in 2021 following a Saudi-led AlUla agreement to end the dispute, while Bahrain announced in April that it had decided to restore diplomatic relations.
In April, Qatar and Bahrain announced to restore diplomatic relations after a six years-long dispute.
