Message to Mephistopheles and all others who think like him.
flying lots of long haul routes with 1000 planes and advertising all over the world does not equal success.
Success for Gulf Air is:
1. Satisfy the travel needs of the people of Bahrain, expat and local.
2. Do it using a good product that satisfies customers.
3. Try and make it so that people give you more money for the services than you spend.
However, SM and the gov't are going further than that by trying to be a leading regional airline, they could stop simply at flying Bahraini locals and Bahraini expats to popular destinations, have maybe 15 aircraft in total but at least they have higher ambitions than that.
So to all of you who still bitch and moan on the basis of routes and expansion; your argument is not valid. An airline of 50 planes, with the majority of them being short haul, serving the needs of the region, and making a profit would be ideal. If all you want is to fly long haul so that you can go to East Asia, America and Europe and do whatever it is that you do there, then join another airline, this airline needs people who support its plan, and its a good one. Wait until the E190s show up, they are a little bigger and may serve Gulf Airs needs a little better than the 170s. But you wont know until both planes are tried out. Its not as if he's put in any firm orders. Majali is trying these aircraft out, how else is he to know what works and what doesn't? Calculating stuff on paper does not substitute real world trail and error.
You guys still don't realize that GF has 320s on order, probably with many many more to come if the 330 deal is renegotiated. The Embraers are not a replacement for the 320s. Any regional carrier needs something that size to go to places that just aren't big enough for the 320. And why does GF have to go to those small markets? Because they are untapped, and will provide GF with a lead in the market. Because if GF is going to be the best regional carrier with the biggest route structure it needs to go everywhere, this is good thinking. Its the same plan as Emirates but on a regional level, not a global one.
Ok, that being said stop complaining about the lack of vision for long haul, GF cannot compete with EK and EY. If the Bahraini gov't is willing to give the airline unlimited money then maybe, but otherwise forget it. If its just your preference to fly farther and bigger planes because of your own ego then go right ahead, but stop making it seem as though there is something wrong with GF, becuase the long haul issue is not a problem at all, it will be perfectly acceptable if GF is a smaller but profitable airline (and even then a 50 plane airline is not small; it is compared to a 200 plane airline but then everything is relative). There are problems at GF but the decision to fly only a few long haul routes is not one of them, its perfectly acceptable and a good one.