Gulf Air restructuring

Once the major carrier in the region but now just a shadow of its former self, Gulf Air is making progress with what is a major shake-up.  Despite a difficult operating environment, the restructuring measures have started yielding results and the strategy remains on track to achieve overall cost savings of 24% by the end of 2013.

The airline also cut its expenditure significantly through reductions in aircraft lease fees, flight related charges, staff expenses and the closure of four loss-making routes.

With a focus on high-demand and high-yield point-to-point routes to connect Bahraini businesses with regional markets as opposed to low-yield transit traffic, Gulf Air says that it continues to differentiate itself from its regional competitors and carve a long-term niche in a highly competitive business environment.  It still operates one of the largest regional networks.

Gulf Air is expecting to complete its network realignment by the end of the month but its major trunk routes to Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris, Mumbai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Manila are likely to stay.  Just two aircraft types will be in the fleet, A320 series and A330-200 with an average age of just 4.3 years. www.gulfair.com

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