Additional UAE-Bahrain air routes as traffic increases

The number of air routes between the UAE and Bahrain will be increased to boost capacity and ease congestion, it was announced yesterday.

Yesterday's decision to add two new air routes between the UAE and Bahrain, bringing the total to three, comes at a time of rising traffic across the region.

"This change is a natural result of the large increase in air-traffic movement in the UAE and the region. The introduction of three routes accommodates air traffic increase," said Saif Al Suwaidi, the director general of the UAE's General Authority for Civil Aviation.

The agreement is the latest phase of a partnership plan between Bahrain and Dubai Air Navigation Services.

The last change was at the end of last year and included restructuring of airspace and the creation of the "Delta" sector, which increased capacity by 55 per cent.

Passenger traffic among the Middle East's airlines grew at 10.9 per cent year on year in April, according to the International Air Transport Association (Iata), the fastest growing region in the world.

Cargo data from March showed that the Middle East and Africa airlines' traffic grew 10.5 per cent, even as the recovery in global freight rates that began towards the end of last year stalled, according to Iata.