(people chattering)
- Today, I'm taking my first flight of 2021.
It's a short hop to Bahrain
to see a brand new terminal just opened there.
(upbeat music starts)
- Welcome aboard.
Thank you so much (indistinct).
Enjoy your flight.
- Thank you.
(upbeat music)
Oh, this seat is really fun.
There's a fixed shell, they slide forward,
it doesn't recline backwards.
- Good afternoon.
May I offer you some lemonade or orange juice please?
- Hi, my name is Captain (indistinct),
I'd like to welcome you aboard this aircraft,
Airbus (indistinct),
and it's flight number 505 to Bahrain International Airport.
Flying time to Bahrain today is 55 minutes,
and we will cruise at 26,000 feet.
I hope that you will enjoy this flight with us.
- [Radio Tower] Go for 505, (indistinct),
cleared for takeoff.
(engine reving)
(upbeat music)
- I was expecting a light flight,
but looks like it's pretty packed in economy.
There's about a hundred passenger.
(upbeat music)
So this is a short flight, 50 minutes.
what are the snacks for the passenger?
- Yeah, we have a selection of the snacks.
We have vegetarian or chicken sandwiches,
cold snacks.
(music continues)
- Please enjoy, this is your lunch.
You had requested for the salmon salad,
(upbeat music)
- Please allow (indistinct voice)
(upbeat music)
- We saw the old Bahrain terminal,
which I have very fond memory,
because it was small but it was easy to access.
But today we are parking at the new terminal.
This will be my first time to see it.
And this terminal just opened a couple days ago,
during COVID.
- Thank you very much. (foreign language)
- [Women] Thank you very much. - Thank you very much.
Thank you, take care.
- Have a happy day, goodbye. - Bye, see you.
Thank you.
Arriving now in that new terminal of Bahrain.
It smells fresh actually.
You just smell something like new car, right?
It has a fresh smell in the new terminal.
(upbeat music starts)
So I just arrived in Bahrain,
and in the middle of the arrival here, is a huge TV screen.
Perhaps the biggest one I've seen.
And I can see straight through this rooftop
to the control tower.
The lighting is excellent.
- Welcome.
- Hello.
- Salaam Aleikum!
- Wa Aleikum Salaam
- Yeah, I know the word (foreign language)
(laughing)
You know, this is in the Middle east, in The Gulf,
you say, "How are you?"
- Yeah.
(foreign language)
- My name is Ala,
and this is my colleague Shaylah.
This is the new airport of Bahrain.
This is the Arrival Department.
- And here we have the Immigration.
(foreign language)
And we have both side to departure going up for transit.
Welcome to Bahrain
(upbeat music starts) (letters twinkling)
I know I sent him to complete.
- Hello, Mr. Ali. Nice to meet you. Beautiful airport.
- How was your experience there?
- Well, the x-ray was something new.
It was big, right?
- It's the most advanced security machines we have
in the middle East.
- So really the most advanced x-ray machines.
- Absolutely Yes.
- Excellent. You see for every part of my body.
- Absolutely, just to make sure you are safe.
- Yeah. So I'll follow you for the tour.
(upbeat music)
This airport is brand new, since when was it opened?
- Last week, exactly last week.
- Exactly a week now.
- Yes, Thursday 2:30 was the first flight to Delhi
a Bel fair flight departed on time.
- Right. Beautiful, good lighting.
- Thank you.
- And also I see the duty-free shops on the site.
- Yes.
- You don't have to go pass it.
- No, absolutely.
- That was very annoying.
If you don't like the shop, you have to stand
by the duty free shops, drove to the Dre through.
Tell me this is a rectangular building.
- It is.
- And how long is the link?
- It's about one and two end.
Once phase two is over.
- See, I'm very concerned because guys like me
don't like to walk, not to exercise much.
We would like to go straight
to the gate, very close, like the old terminal.
(upbeat music)
- Sam. We did trials for the speed and efficiency
of transactions.
We managed to process the passenger from cafe side
to the middle of Gates in eight and a half minutes.
- All right.
So because it's one kilometre long, but the Immigration is
in the middle.
- Exactly.
- So you are in the middle of, of that one kilometre.
So its not that far.
- Spot on.
And plus we have travelators.
If you're going through the far end Gates, you can still
use the travelators to make it on time.
- What's their capacity in this new terminal?
- 14 million passengers per year.
- 14 million.
- Yeah
- But during COVID what's your traffic movement.
What's your numbers like now?
- Pre COVID we used to handle
24,000 passengers a day.
Now we're trading at 5,000 a day.
So it's quite a drop, but this is giving us
a chance to show the best service we have.
We have less demand on our facilities.
Last week was the switch over to the new terminal.
This is the very only airport that I know
have switched full operation
full swing without single public trial.
- Really, no trial?
- This is really amazing.
- No trial, you just switch like that?
- We did segmented trials, but we've never had the chance
because of COVID-19 to run public trial obviously.
- It would be hard in COVID.
- Absolutely. Absolutely.
So what happened
on day one is amazing and everyone deserves, you know
a big thank you for their efforts.
- Do you find a lot of snagging teething issues?
- Usual issues, but
through the collaboration of all stakeholders
and operators at the airport, I think the team spirit
has overcome every challenge that we faced
on day one, Sam, this is where we are standing now.
And this is the
the existing terminal existing new terminal.
We are building three more Gates
towards the old terminal.
After we demolished the old terminal witnessed
the early years of aviation in Bahrain
we had the first commercial concorde aircraft
- Yes Concorde?
the home court in 1973.
That's right.
Number four will be the General Aviation Terminal.
- Oh, I see lots of interesting sculpture as well.
Nice art display.
But you know what?
I think the best thing here in your airport
is I'm a plane Spotter
is looking out the window, seeing all the planes.
- Its beautiful.
- Its coming and going.
And then you can see also the middle runway rotation points.
So this is a great airport...
- Its too close to the runway as well.
- Too close to the runway, that's great
for plane spotting, that we might to do this
you know, beautiful.
Yeah. I love it.
And it hasn't been a character as well because I have lots
of great sporting memory from barring the old airport.
And then the new airport is literally powered up.
You still have great glasses like this.
Love it.
(upbeat music)
I just happened to meet a famous YouTuber in Bahrain.
This is Omar Farouk.
- Its great to meet you.
- He did actually one day in Gulf air flight attendants life
he was dressed up as a flight cabin crew.
Right? How was it?
- It was great.
The trained me for like two weeks to be a cabin crew.
- Right.
- So I was a real cabin crew.
- Oh you trained not just one day, two weeks?
- Like on two weeks of training,
then I travelled to all the way
to Thailand to Phuket and we came back.
- You did a flight to Pukhet and came back.
I was waiting you to serve me on board one day.
How was your airport experience here?
- I love it.
The art pieces everywhere.
So nice.
It's like the culture of Bahrain and art and the same time.
It's huge for us because the old airport was tiny.
So the difference here is it's like, wait
I'm in Bahrain or what?
- Yeah. Yeah.
You can listen to, they had this very relaxing music
almost classical symphony playing
in the background to make the travel experience, very calm.
(upbeat music)
So I've been exploring the airport,
I found a lot of interesting art pieces
and increasingly the airport has now become
not just an airport, but more like a museum.
(upbeat music)
I found like I'm immersing myself into here
into the good old times, although I'm in a new airport.
But look at the architecture.
Look at the art pieces here.
There's a lot of identity of Bahrain and the golf here.
(upbeat music)
I'm excited to check out a new lounge at the new airport.
Let's take a look.
Oh, you know, I love these chairs.
Look at this.
Look at the colours.
I mean every piece here, this is an interesting piece.
I don't think anybody really wanted to lay out here openly
but I just loved the piece.
The architecture design here.
It must have serious interior design work in this lounge.
And it's feels like much bigger than the old lounge as well.
I'm getting hungry.
So let me get some food.
(upbeat music)
(frying sizzling sound)
The lounge manager told me they have a live cooking station
making recipes.
I like this.
Its all cooked by orders now.
(upbeat music)
So the food here is all a LA carte.
You have to use your mobile to scan the QR code
to order the food that are some big menu of food.
Pizza, pasta, beef stroganoff, biryiani.
They knew what the customer want here
in the middle East.
Lots of food in this lunch.
(upbeat music)
Wow. That's a great shot.
I'm going to beat you.
How's that shot?
- I mean, you weren't standing properly, but okay.
- Yeah. Well, anyway, wean is awaiting.
All right.
Stay safe.
Take care.
It's been a great laugh.
Love it.
Thank you. Bye-bye
Yeah, so it was a good pit stop at the lounge.
I ate a lot.
Now its heading home to Dubai on Gulf Air Dream liner.
(upbeat music)
That was couple of hours spent in the new Bahrain Terminal.
What I like about a terminal
is it has this boutique field just like golfer has
(upbeat music)
It is really modern and classy.
It opened during a challenge time with low travel demand
but I hope it will serve Bahrain well in the future.
I can't wait to hear
about your experience of the New Airport Terminal.
(upbeat music)