On Bahrain/Milan flight, business passengers stay on board (and continue on to Nice)
In recent days I flew from Muscat to Milan Malpensa, via Bahrain, aboard Gulf Air's A321. Obviously the [...]
NCE
France
In the past few days, I flew from Muscat to Milan Malpensa., via Bahrain, aboard Gulf Air's A321. Of course, the full review will be coming soon, as well as the video on the YT channel.
In this article:
It's not just another flight, because for the second year in a row. Gulf Air, Bahrain's flag carrier, lengthens the route from Malpensa to Nice, the "capital" of the French Riviera and the second largest airport in France. The flight is operated in fifth freedom and in fact allows one to embark from the Middle East archipelago and disembark just a few kilometers from the promenade des Anglais.
The flight is operated with A321neo, planes that arrived in the GU fleet starting in 2022 and are used for medium-haul routes where the capacity of the 787/9s that are the company's flagship is not needed.
In the days before departure I've been inundated with emails where the company proposed that I do the classic auction to win an upgrade, but the almost €450 minimum bid request discouraged me, partly because the BAH/MXP flight is just under 6 hours long and my one-way ticket had cost a total of €327 for the two legs.
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So after flying from Muscat, on a virtually empty plane, I went to Gulf Air's transit counter to get a new "last minute" upgrade offer.
The Bahrain stopover is really nice, With beautiful light and reflection effects on the white floors. An immense food court, too bad only that there are no Priority Pass lounges and having to spend almost 8 hours in the airport I played the upgrade route to get access to the Falcon Lounge.
Of course I could have also taken a city tour, again there are free ones for those with long layovers, but the heat and the need to work put me off.
Unfortunately, however, when my turn came I found that the 16 business class seats were all sold out.
I then worked and waited for boarding to open. Overnight flight and arrival, almost on time, at Malpensa's Silvio Berlusconi. Here the crew announcement explaining how to behave to passengers continuing on to Nice, who were asked to remain seated and not disembark.
When we arrived in Milan, the thing that amazed me was. In economy, where I was sitting, virtually all but 3 or 4 passengers got off. Crossing the business cabin, however, I noticed how of the 16 seats, all but 2 were still occupied, a sign that 14 passengers, i.e. 87.5% of the premium passengers on board were headed to Nice.
Given that Emirates flies there, with the A380, Qatar flies there with the A350, in addition to all the other carriers such as Turkish, Saudia, and Etihad, it was better for these passengers to travel via Milan. on a single-aisle plane, rather than stop over at one of the nearby hubs and then fly on larger and more comfortable planes than the A321.
I have no idea what the actual numbers are, but Chatting with a flight attendant confirmed to me that it is a trend and that is why the company operates this fifth freedom connection. I also understand why the price of this flight is way out of the market when compared, for example, to the Milan/Barcelona operated by Singapore Airlines.
