Gulf Air (Arabic: طيران الخليج, romanized: Ṭayarān al-Khalīj) is the flag carrier of Bahrain, which was founded in 1950.

[citation needed] 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.

[5] By the early 70's 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.

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.

[8] 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 Sana'a.

[5] 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.

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.

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.

[5] Gulf Air's sponsorship of the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix continued, with a record race crowd and a global TV audience.

The results meant the airline out-performed the targets set under Project Falcon, the three-year restructuring plan approved by the Board in December 2002.

[5] The owner states of Gulf Air at that time—the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the Sultanate of Oman—confirmed their support for further expansion of the airline through a new three-year strategic plan which would include re-equipment of the aircraft fleet and recapitalization of the business through private-sector financing.

The airline ran a series of advertisements in local newspapers, thanking Abu Dhabi for its contribution to Gulf Air.

As the national carrier for the United Arab Emirates for over 35 years, it has a large customer base located in Abu Dhabi.

James Hogan resigned as president and chief executive officer as of 1 October 2006 (subsequently becoming CEO at rival airline Etihad).

[19] Gulf Air had also announced cutbacks to 25% of its workforce or roughly 1,500 jobs as part of a 2-year restructuring program to stop losses of $1 million a day.

[20] André Dosé resigned on 23 July 2007 and was replaced by Bjorn Naf, prompting the Bahraini government to call for further transparency in the airline's running, and delegating parliament's financial and economic affairs committee to investigate Gulf Air's situation.

On 3 July 2008, Gulf Air was announced as the official sponsor of London association football club, Queens Park Rangers.

Starting June 2009, Gulf Air's Golden Falcon logo was seen on the streets of London, emblazoned on the side of the city's taxi cabs, as part a two-year marketing deal.

Fifty Hackney Carriages were to be rolled out in full Gulf Air livery to promote the airline's flights from London Heathrow to Bahrain and beyond.

The airline originally was to resume service to Iran from November 2012, but cancelled the plan as it was unable to receive approval from the Iranian authorities.

At the end of November 2012, it was announced that Gulf Air CEO Samer Majali's resignation had been accepted by the board of directors.

In February 2019, the airline briefly suspended flights to Pakistan after the country temporarily closed its airspace due to increased tensions with India.

[36] Few business figures are released on a regular basis, but those available are shown below (as at year ending 31 December): Gulf Air sponsors events, of which the most prestigious is the Bahrain Grand Prix.

As of March 2023, Gulf Air flies to 61 destinations with 9 being seasonal in 30 countries across Africa, Asia and Europe from its hub at Bahrain International Airport.