Gateway to the Middle East
Bahrain is uniquely located at the heart of the Gulf. Our reputation for cultural neutrality and good relations with our neighbours provides a neutral platform for business, enabling companies to serve other markets in the Middle East with great ease. This makes Bahrain the perfect hub for operations in the fast-growing Gulf, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) markets.
Access to every market in the Middle East is fast and efficient, by air, sea and road. In total, Bahrain is spending $2.9bn to upgrade its logistics infrastructure. This is why DHL has chosen Bahrain as its regional headquarters, due to the excellent transport in infrastructure and low operating costs.
The Middle East Choice for Market Access
Bahrain has the shortest travel time between its seaport, airport and the logistics processing zone of anywhere in the Gulf enabling more efficient and faster processing of trade goods.
By Land
Saudi Arabia is a 40 minute car drive (23km) via King Fahd Causeway from central Manama. Almost 500,000 trucks cross the causeway into Saudi Arabia every year; this figure is expected to grow.
As of 2013, the Bahrain-Qatar Friendship Causeway will provide direct access to Qatar within 50 minutes.
By Sea
The Khalifa bin Salman Port, together with the
Bahrain Logistics Zone, is designed to be one of the region’s largest shipping and transport hubs. Its port capacity will increase tenfold over the next three years.
The Kingdom’s new sea port is equipped with the latest handling and IT technologies, as well as six 300-meter berths and four cranes.
Danish ports management company,
APM Terminals (APMT), has invested $62m in systems and handling. In total, the investment of the port is approximately $500m. (MEED Special Report: Bahrain – Vision 2030 plan takes shape).
New port to service estimated 100 million people living in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran.
By Air
Gulf Air has the most intra-regional connections of any airline in the Gulf. Additionally,
Bahrain Air, Bahrain’s other jet carrier has frequent flights to similar destinations.
Bahrain International Airport will soon be home to the Cargo Oasis, an expanded cargo handling facility that will treble Bahrain’s international air cargo to a capacity of one million tones per annum, a level comparable with London's Heathrow Airport and have capacity for 27 large cargo planes to be handled at any given time.
Flight Durations
| Destination | Airtime from Bahrain |
| Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | 1hr 10 min |
| Jeddah, Saudi Arabia | 2hr 30 min |
| Doha, Qatar | 50 min |
| Kuwait City, Kuwait | 1hr |
| Dubai, United Arab Emirates | 1hr |
| Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | 1hr 10 min |
| Mascat, Oman | 1hr 30 min |
Source:
www.GulfAir.com