Gulf Air $347 in the red!

[.Aero]

Short piece of news in one of Bahrain's Arabic papers about Gulf Air's finances.

BHD 131/$347 million in losses so far this year it would seem.

Projected losses for 2009 are 226 BHD/ $600 million.

According to the spreadsheet printed in the paper, they're not going to see profitability until 2014, (that's if things goto plan).

Click HERE (http://i35.tinypic.com/2j1wggh.jpg) to see the spreadsheet.

[Sleekspirit]

lol......can't believe a Gulf Air employee was dumb enough to leak the financials. Do they not realise that they have just given competitors useful insider information about their operations. They have embaraced the airline and made it look stupid infront of its regional competitors, Emirates, Qatar or Ethihad. (Could you imaging their financials being leaked......the thought is laughable!)

Everyone knows that due to the current oil price airlines are going under and no making profits, even today Ryanair announced losses for the first time. In such an enviroment you would think that all the employees would work together to see their company through the hard times. In my opinion they should find out who leaked the info and bang their head against the wall for being such an idiot :ugh:

[tbaylx]

Assuming that spreadsheet is real, whoever leaked that to the public should be fired at the very least. That kind of stuff is private company data, useful to both the competition and others. Sad to see that sort of thing public, and not a very healthy looking balance sheet at the end of the day.

Glad the bah government is backing the airline, gives you an idea of the damage that was done to GF over the last several decades by multiple owners and poor management.

Good for the crews though, by looking at the budget for crew salary you get the idea of what kind of raises you can expect of the next 8 years or so. Least they have budgeted an increase :)

[Lord Flashhart]

347$?

That is NOTHING, I lost 347$ at a poker game the other night. They must be doing really well.:}:E

[left_to_first_class]

It's real.

Rumour has it that its been 'strategically' leaked so that everyone realises how bad GF finances are. I'm with this rumour as the editor of the paper would have known what was in his hands and if he published it he'll know there may be a phone or two from higher bodies and maybe a call from CID.
Shame really that its come to this.

[.Aero]

I don't think this was "strategically" released at all!

Gulf Air isn't a private family business. It's holding company is government owned and therefor it's performance and it's finances are scrutinized by Parliament and indeed wider society.

I can understand how allot of locals will cry foul of such information being put in full public view. A word not understood here is transparency. Public companies put their financial information on the table for all to see, failing or otherwise.

Can someone help me make sense of Gulf Air's registration with the Ministry of Commerce?

It was last renewed this month and is valid until 2010, but why does Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Oman still appear as 25% shareholders ?

Ministry of Commerce, Bahrain - CR Details (http://www.commerce.gov.bh/mocsite/displayreport.asp?brno=11641)

[Krinkle]

The finances were due to come out anyway - the government holding company Mumtalakat has completed a fair-market valuation of all its assets and will be publishing the results as part of a transparency drive to attract investment. They would have been published before the end of the year anyway.

About a year ago Al Kooheji said we could expect the airline to be back in the black and preparing for an IPO within 18 months. The mans a genius...

What Bahraini paper was it in?

[.Aero]

It was published in Al Ayam newspaper.

GF offering IPO? :} Funny. Don't see how that would work considering you require two consecutive years of profits.

[JABAL]

AERO I wholeheartedly agree with you:ok:
After years of neglect, the time has come to get this Company in order, starting with Transparency & Accountablity:D
Its a Dilemmaa!!!!!!!! competion has increased,fuel priceses are on the rise, LCC operators poping up every week taking a chunk of the market:{
SO WHATS NEXT FOR GF:*
First, start cleaning up the place, getting rid of the deliquent CEO and the incompetent managment, THAN, start with someone at the helm, who would have the Company's interst paramount, and his perssonel Agenda second:8
OR ultimately appoint the little guy next door 70miles south of the island for six month to bring this Airline back on its feet:D

[fractional]

OR ultimately appoint the little guy next door 70miles south of the island for six month to bring this Airline back on its feetI don't think that is the solution. Perhaps, a pratical business plan, competency, transparency and loads of government support within a given time frame may do the trick.
EK succeeded because they placed a management team in place to run the company and just look at the results 22 years later. It's true that the team came to place only in 91 after a very shacky start in 86 with the PIA venture. Some will critisize the composition of the team in 91, but they made it. It wasn't perfect, but it worked. Many will remember what many said (and still say) about TC and his days in GF in the finance department before moving to EK... Was he or MF or anybody else at the top the difference? I believe it was the team.
The next thing I saw with the a team was G9 (Air Arabia), although in a smaller scale. Let's see if GF make it next after going alone.
There is no perfect management team, but they must have a pratical business plan, competency, transparency and loads of government support within a given time frame.

[Ayla]

didn't the liitle guy 70 miles south, use to work for Gulf Air back in the Mid 90's?

[fractional]

didn't the litle guy 70 miles south, use to work for Gulf Air back in the Mid 90's? Don't think so. He used to work for the Qatari CAA where he ended up being the Head of Admin before getting the QR top job. In his CAA days he loved to go on board GF acft during the transit or turnaround stops to bug the girlies.
Note: I love the term heand, very much used here in this region. When you leave a job you get beheaded.

[.Aero]

Taken from Bahrain's english paper this morning:

BAHRAIN's national carrier Gulf Air is on a flight path to financial ruin, unless it completely overhauls its business strategy and management team.

Click HERE (http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=224990&Sn=BNEW&IssueID=31133) to read the whole article.

[boiler]

Mr Murad said the document was from Gulf Air's finance department and a senior official had confirmed to him that the information was 100 per cent correct.

I wonder who that idiot is? I'll bet you he/she is the first to go if GF finds out.:=

[Che Guevara]

Mr Murad also criticised Gulf Air's sponsorship of the English Championship football team Queens Park Rangers (QPR), which he described as pointless.
"If it was a well-known and high-profile team we would have welcomed it but nobody knows them," he said.
"Why not sponsor a team from Bahrain?"

Classic! Who would he propose....Muharraq United or perhaps the Buddaiya Wanderers, both well known and high profile teams internationally as we all know...:ugh:
I wonder if he knows who owns QPR and what that realtionship means for the future of F1 in the Islet.

But now we are seeing new companies progressing faster and getting better than Gulf Air. And most people in those airlines are ex-employees of Gulf Air."

Who would they be now? OK, one or two management types perhaps, including Timmy Clarke at EK and the fellow at Air Arabia...yes and quite a few pilots.....but the word most...maybe he was quoted out of context, surely....;)

This place really is Fantasy Island! A reality check is perhaps the best solution to GFs problems.

Good luck

[Che Guevara]

Hi brightjoe,
I didn't mention the latter two because they really are nothing to sing about ;)

Chao

[Ayla]

A lot of the senior management at Air Arabia are ex Gulf Air Bahraini's and have done a pretty impressive job. In the long term Gulf needs to attract people like these back!

However I think constantly changing management teams will only cause more problems, Gulf cannot be fixed over night, patience and a lot of investment will be required.

[wapses]

He is right about the QPR sponsorship being a waste of money.

The point of shirt sponsorship is to get your brand on television in front of millions of potential customers. However few Championship games are televised so it's hardly going to achieve a lot.

[Propellor]

It is interesting to see how a loss making company reacts to its financial woes: Gulf Air's top brass seem to drown their sorrows by going on a spending spree!

Take the F1 party; the re-modelling of the offices; the new furniture; official junkets to all the fancy places to write about in his personal diary, aka 'Hello Gulf Air'.

Who is 'Be-on-snuff' fooling? Is the 'Bored' actually so naiive or plain stupid?

[.Aero]

Sal-e, EY isn't even 5 years old yet!