Bahrain and Qatar resume direct flights

Imago/Frank Sorge via Reuters Connect

• GCC members resumed diplomatic relations in April
• Trade between Manama and Doha has plummeted in past 21 years

Direct flights between Bahrain and Qatar are set to restart on May 25, as relations improve between the two GCC members.

Bahrain’s Civil Aviation Affairs agency confirmed the resumption of flights “in accordance with what was agreed upon between the concerned authorities in the two brotherly countries”, according to the kingdom’s news agency.

The move follows the resumption of diplomatic ties between Bahrain and Qatar, after a top-level meeting last month in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia took the lead in rebuilding relations with Qatar in 2021, ending an embargo that had been in place for three-and-a-half years and was joined by the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain.

• Bahrain’s GDP grows at fastest rate in a decade
• Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan and UAE sign $2bn of industrial deals

However, while flight and trade links were restored between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, Bahrain had resisted until April.

Trade between Manama and Doha has plummeted over the past 21 years, according to figures from the Observatory of Economic Complexity. 

Exports from Qatar to the kingdom have decreased at an annual rate of 24 percent from $25 million in 2000 to $70,600 in 2021.

Trade in the opposite direction fell by 31 percent, from $48 million in 2000 to just $17,500 in 2021.