Gulf Air Developments

[ShirleyNot]

ANY NEWS ANY NEWS from the meeting today? (for us on the otherside of the world enjoying 'luxury nightstops'.)

[Che Guevara]

Should I stay or should I go?

"Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An’ if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know!"

This song from The Clash keep resonating in my head for some reason....

Anybody else having this problem?

[Bombay HF]

The smart ones got out when the last ''turnaround'' package was announced.

[Che Guevara]

The smart ones got out when the last ''turnaround'' package was announced.

So you are one of the smart one's I guess, congratulations.

The bottom line is where you are on the totem pole of the game and what you have achieved or still need to achieve, be it financial or otherwise. The game by the way is life, so please don't judge others by your own measure, we all have different ideas, needs and circumstances.
Good luck 'smart one'.

[Albergineman]

Exactly what Andre Dose wanted to do, no rocket science, but he wanted to cut the useless manpower.

The difference now is they will cut the foreign manpower, the useless (maybe a few) ones and the good ones.

Gulf Air to cut staff, may sell planes, Bahrain Aviation, Transportation - Maktoob Business

[Krinkle]

15 routes to be cut - Shanghai, Hydrabad, Bangalore first to go.

More than 20 regional jets needed to serve 20 new destinations to be added to the network - from what I could see on the route map it was places like Aden, more Iranian destinations, and some in the former Soviet CIS states.

Narrow bodies to serve what few European destinations remain - he cited Lufthansa's business class to Bahrain on a narrow body as an example.

No "productive" staff will be sacked - but cuts look imminent.

[hunter320]

so whats the bottem line? more A/C or Less? or same number but smaller?
i wonder what will happen when wide body guys are asked to come down to narrow body.
any one know if the axing or retirement packages will include pilots?

[Mike.Park]

They're saying goodbye to long-haul and will focus on regional ops.

Majali has said they'll be getting rid of their 340s "and others"... I wonder what other aircraft will be decommissioned? 330s?

There's a good article in the Financial Times

FT.com / Companies / Middle East & North Africa - Gulf Air scraps routes in restructuring

[brassplate]

Exactly what Andre Dose wanted to do, no rocket science, but he wanted to cut the useless manpower.

bastard bahrainis.
they did not want to listen to the same idea from the 'infidel' andré dosé but are happy to listen to a fellow arab. really shows the mentality here.
had they listened back then, imagine the millions that could have been saved!

[boiler]

There's a good article in the Financial Times

GF has 19 A340s???

imagine the millions that could have been saved!

Not to mention many of the routes that were shut down over the years. I count at least 17 stations over the last 10 years.

[DesertHawk]

guys he stated today if u were listening, "about 10 or so regional aircraft".

that is what i heard anyways. atleast this guy stands up and says something. he even put the office people in their place stating over the last 20 years this was more like a charity for work lol!!!! anyways it all depends on implementation

[Mike.Park]

Apart from shanghai, hyderabad and bangalore, anyone know the other 12 routes to be axed?

[DesertHawk]

just curious how u even know it is 12 routes? heard no solid number at that meeting about that

[fractional]

These articles, Gulf Air restructuring to concentrate on regional operations and Gulf Air to cut staff, may sell planes, Bahrain Aviation, Transportation - Maktoob Business, basically restates what I wrote on P.65. We may argue the 10/10 narrow/wide body aircraft combination for a 15/10 or 15/5, but GF has to readdress his Bahrain clientele where the cash comes from. And this includes cargo.
Poaching pax from other Gulf countries will not make money. QR/EY/EK, among LCCs, will do cheaper. Through traffic will be only viable if pax spend some time and money in Bahrain buying GF or Bahrain associated products.
However, what does Bahrain have to offer versus, let's say, the UAE? In the UAE you can go to places, inland, mountainous terrain, beaches facing the Gulf and the Indian Ocean, attractive shooping, etc.. This is NO rocket science.

[Skybeds]

say good bye to the 330s .. majalis plans are to reduce the order of those planes or to cancel them

[Mike.Park]

just curious how u even know it is 12 routes?

Reuters reported that GF announced 15 axed routes of which 3 have already been named, which leaves us with 12

[evilatp]

My guess is that there will be 10-15 Embraers, 25-30 A320's and 5 A330's. Just a guess, but from the meeting and the planned changes in route structure it seems like a logical fleet distribution. Don't forget that this plan is supposed to take 3 years. Might be more like 5 years the way things move in the Gulf.

[behramjee]

If I was a betting man, I would add LCA and ATH to the list of routes that would get the axe.

I would also bet on regional destinations such as Isfahan, Bandar Abbas, Tashkent, Almaty and Basra being added to the network. These flights along with many others in the GCC region would likely be flown within 2 years by E190s I reckon!

These E 190s are ideally suited for GF's low volume short haul regional flights within the Persian Gulf area rather than the larger A 320s.

One positive thing to arise out of all this is that GF A 320s will soon get PTVs installed in every seat!

[ddd]

I somehow don't think that Bahrain Air is going to be so happy about this???

[brassplate]

as always, when a destination like shanghai starts to pick up after a development period, gf pulls out leaving everyone guessing. that is one of the only things that gf excels at, next to losing over a million a day.