Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, will be bringing live coverage of the 2012 London Olympics games onboard its long haul flights from 27 July to 12 August.

The airline's popular inflight entertainment suite, 'Sky Hub' that features world's first live TV programming, full broadband internet access and mobile phone services, will be telecasting live all the excitement of the world's greatest sports event in association with Sports 24- the 24-hour live sports channel produced by IMG Media. 

Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer Mr. Samer Majali said, "Since the launch of 'SkyHub' in October 2011, we have continued to offer our customers unique viewing experience onboard bringing live coverage of popular sports events such as Euro 2012 and Wimbledon. The London 2012 Olympics Games live coverage is the latest in our offering as we continue to impress our customers with innovative products and services." 

Gulf Air provides travellers, particularly sports fans, the opportunity to catch up with their favorite sport events in the comfort of their seats onboard Gulf Air. In addition to broadcasting the Formula One races, the airline will also be relaying live the Open Championship on its flights. Customers can also enjoy a fully integrated broadband connectivity offering high speed internet, 3G-4G mobile data speed, voice over the internet (VOIP), streaming videos and the world's first in-flight live TV satellite stream across continents.

Using Panasonic's Global Communications Suite, Gulf Air offers two-way broadband connectivity at speeds of up to 50 Mbps enabling faster browsing, chatting and other internet based services. Gulf Air will offer deeply immersive, content-rich entertainment in addition to live, uninterrupted television services on routes across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Travelers will no longer have to wait in anxiety until they land to find out scores from their favorite sporting events or news from around the world. Now they can watch the F1 races from around the world on Sport 24, their favorite football teams on IMG Media's Barclays Premier League channel or keep up with world events on favorite news channels such as BBC World News, BBC Arabic and Euronews. 

Passengers are also able to browse the web at broadband speeds, and access social media services such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, business travelers can access their virtual private network (VPN) to send and receive emails while watching live-news and stock market updates at 35,000 feet. They simply need to turn on their personal device, connect to the in-flight Wi-Fi network, and log into the service through Deutsche Telekom, the wireless internet service provider onboard.