In the late 1940s, Freddie Bosworth, a British pilot and entrepreneur, began an air taxi service toDoha and Dhahran from Bahrain. Bosworth later expanded service and, in 1950, registered Gulf Aviation as a private shareholding company, making it one of the oldest carriers in the Middle East.[4] The fleet contained seven Avro Ansons and three De Havilland DH.86B 4-engine biplanes.
In October 1951, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) became a major shareholder in Gulf Aviation, holding a 22% stake.[3]
In 1973 the governments of the Kingdom of Bahrain, State of Qatar, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the Sultanate of Oman purchased BOAC's shares in Gulf Aviation. The Foundation Treaty signed on 1 January 1974 gave each government a 25% shareholding in the rebranded Gulf Air, which became the flag carrier for the four states. Later that year, the airline's support of oil exploration resulted in the establishment of the wholly-owned subsidiary Gulf Helicopters.[3]
A Gulf Air Vickers VC-10 landing atLondon Heathrow Airport, England. (1977)
With leased Lockheed L-1011 Tristar and Boeing 737aircraft joining the fleet, by 1976, Gulf Air had expanded its route network to include Amman,Amsterdam, Athens, Baghdad, Bangkok, Beirut, Cairo, Colombo, Delhi, Dhaka, Hong Kong,Jeddah, Khartoum, Larnaca, Manila, Paris, Ras al-Khaimah and San‘a’. The fleet comprised fourVickers VC10, three BAC One-Elevens, two Lockheed L-1011 Tristar 200s, and five Boeing 737-200s. Two years later, the airline doubled the Tristar fleet by replacing the VC10s. Meanwhile, the airline increased the Boeing 737 fleet to nine and phased out the One-Elevens.
The 1980s saw an increase in air travel and growth for Gulf Air. In 1981 Gulf Air became an IATAmember and in the following year became the first international airline to land at Riyadh. In 1985,Emirates, the national startup and national carrier of Dubai, United Arab Emirates began operating, which would later become a major rival of Gulf Air. In 1988 the Boeing 767s joined the fleet and the airline launched service to Frankfurt, Istanbul, Damascus, Dar es Salaam, Fujairah, and Nairobi, and resumed service to Shiraz, andBaghdad.
Gulf Air celebrated its 40th anniversary in 1990. The light blue and peach Balenciaga-designed uniform was introduced. Singapore, Sydney, and Thiruvananthapuram were launched and Gulf Air became the first Arab airline to fly to Australia. Gulf Air added service to Johannesburgand Melbourne in 1992, becoming the first Arab airline to fly directly to these cities. In 1993, it opened up a flight simulator centre in Qatar, and introduced service to Casablanca, Entebbe, Jakarta, Kilimanjaro, Madras, Rome, San'a', Zanzibar, and Zürich.
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