Dubai, marhaba services, the fee based meet and greet service, operated by dnata, part of the Emirates group for passengers at Dubai International Airport, has announced its first international venture, with the signing of an agreement to provide its services at Bahrain International Airport (BIA).

The marhaba service at BIA is scheduled to be available to passengers starting from the summer season of 2012. Teams of staff from marhaba – which means ‘welcome’ in Arabic – have been helping passengers arriving at, transiting through and departing from Dubai International Airport (DIA) since 1991 covering a range of services including chauffeur services and airport lounges. The recent agreement signing ceremony held in Bahrain attended by representatives from Bahrain Airport Authorities, Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA), Police, Immigration, Customs Authorities, Bahrain Airport Company and marhaba’s management.

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Front row from left to right: Brig. Gen Zuhair Al Abbsi, Director General Directorate of Exits Security – Ministry of Interior; Gordon Dewar, CEO of Bahrain Airport Company; Ismail Albanna, Executive Vice President of Marhaba; Ahmed Nemat, Assistant Undersecretary for Aviation Services, Civil Aviation Affairs.

The agreement stipulates marhaba to provide a comprehensive range of premium passenger handling services at BIA including meet and greet services on arrival and departure; transfer services; concierge/ porter service; arranging hotel accommodation; lounges; visa processing and chauffeur services.

“After 20 successful years at Dubai International Airport, we feel confident that we can expand our services even further by partnering and investing within Bahrain,” said Ismail Ali Albanna – Executive Vice President of marhaba. “We’ve worked hard to establish ourselves as a known and trusted brand and we look forward to bringing the same sense of reliability, quality and efficiency to the visitors to and residents of Bahrain”.

“Our core objective at Bahrain International Airport (BIA) is to advance the contribution of the airport to the economy by enhancing BIA’s status, infrastructure and benefits to all stakeholders, passengers and users of its facilities. That is why we are glad to welcome a new partner that will further the success of our airport,” added Gordon Dewar, CEO of Bahrain Airport Company, “Bringing an experienced company to operate our Meet and Assist services will raise our standard of service to an international level."

Source: Emirates Group