I have been reading some of the negative reviews on the airline, but based on my experience, I would rate it to be one of the better airlines in the middle east.
I have flown Gulf Air on numerous occasions in the India- Muscat-Dubai-Bahrain sectors and my experiences have been more or less pleasant.
The aircrafts are new and spacious, the interiors are clean, some of the sectors have personal video screens on all classes.They have multi linguistic cabin crew from various nationalities, though I wont rate them very high on friendliness or passenger handling.The crew lack a smile on the face and are not too responsive to passenger issues.The cabin is a bit noisy during take off and landing, somehow the overhead bins even in the business class seem to rattle at times.
The food served is quite good and variety is available.
I have a Gulf Air frequent flyer membership and on almost 90% of the occasions I have been upgraded to Business Class and believe me their business class is one of the best I have ever flown. Some of the sectors offer full flat sky beds, which is an ultimate in luxury.
The inflight entertainment is decent enough though it does not offer a wide variety of choice.
All inflight announcements are first made in Arabic, followed by English.
The flights are also pretty much on time, I cant recollect an incidence where my flight was delayed beyond 15 mins.
Ground staff is pretty helpful and polite.