Middle Eastern carrier Gulf Air believes the region will be important coverage area for the global alliances, and indicates that it remains open to joining one of the airline groups.

Membership of an alliance was once firmly a part of the Bahrain-based airline’s business strategy. The carrier held discussions, notably with Star Alliance and Oneworld, several years ago but has since undergone fundamental changes of ownership and management.

“Alliances sooner or later need to have a footprint in the Middle East,” said Gulf Air chief executive Bjorn Naf, speaking to flightglobal.com’s sister premium news site ATI at the IATA annual general meeting in Istanbul. But he adds: “There’s a lot of strong carriers in the Middle East that have a lot of ego.”

Few Middle Eastern airlines are allied. Emirates has shunned the global groups and other large carriers, such as Et

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