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karatecatman · Guest

Gulf Air is losing more than one million US dollars a day, its chief executive Andre Dose said on Tuesday as he unveiled a plan to cut its fleet and jobs, says BBC TV.
Over the next two years, the airline will reduce the number of its aircraft to 28 from 34 and become an all Airbus fleet.
The aircraft will also undergo a refurbishment programme at the cost of 190 million Bahraini dinars (505 million US dollars).
Cuts will be made to the airline’s 6,000-strong workforce, but it has yet to announce how many jobs will go and when.
Gulf Air Deputy Chairman Mahmood Al Kooheji said the loss of one million dollars a day ‘‘would even be substantially higher’’ if other costs such as financing were factored in.
Accumulated losses and costs, including 2007, would amount to 254 million Bahraini dinars (675 million US dollars), Kooheji said.
Dose said the frequency of flights to key destinations would be increased and new connections would be added to growing economic centres.
Loss-making flights to Dublin, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Sydney and Singapore will be stopped, in favour of concentrating more on destinations in the Gulf and wider Middle East.
Founded in 1974, Gulf Air is owned equally by the governments of Bahrain and Oman, after Qatar and Abu Dhabi pulled out in 2002 and 2005 respectively.
Gulf Air is also looking at quick turnaround flights especially to the subcontinent. This may even mean carrying an extra set of crew and getting rid of the need for a halt for the crew.

karatecatman · Guest

Details of Gulf Air's fleet restructuring:
Four new Airbus A321 aircraft
Retirement of the entire Boeing B767 fleet and the phasing out of the Gulf Traveller brand.
Replaceing part of the Airbus A340 fleet by five new Airbus A330 aircraft.

sri_bom · Member Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 2365 Location: Singapore

Etihad Airways will reportedly offer positions to all flight crew retrenched by Gulf Air as part of its restructuring plan (Gulf Daily News, 02-May-07). Gulf Air reportedly plans to reduce employee numbers from 6,000 to 4,500 as it cuts loss-making routes and reduces its fleet.

Sri_Bom