Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): Gulf Air has admitted that it cancelled its GF563 flight because of the Bahraini passengers returning from the Iranian city of Mashhad. It said that it made the decision on Friday (March 27, 2020) to cancel one of its scheduled flights from Muscat Airport after it was revealed that there was a large number of registered passengers arriving from Iran via Doha Airport.

Despite the Ministry of Health's repeated statements about Bahrain's capacity and readiness of its medical staff to examine all arrivals at Bahrain Airport and confirm whether they have contracted the Coronavirus, Gulf Air cancelled its flight that was scheduled to transport 76 Bahrainis returning from Iran on the grounds that there was "no prior notice or any consideration to the precautionary and preventive measures taken to ensure the health and safety of all passengers and crew."

Although the airport receives, on a daily basis, up to 1,000 passengers from various countries around the world, including Britain and other countries in Europe, which was at one point the epicentre of the global coronavirus pandemic, Gulf Air is acting- based on its statement-  as if precautionary and preventive measures are only being taken against certain flights and not others, or against the airplane that will fly Bahrainis coming from Iran and not other planes arriving to Bahrain on a daily basis from infected countries.

Instead of providing immediate and urgent services to evacuate Bahraini citizens stranded in infested countries, Gulf Air is evading its responsible national duty, throwing all the burden of responsibility on another country, and returning empty handed to Bahrain with only disappointment on board. 

Arabic Version