Gulf Air Developments

[Landflap]

Mac failed the first stage of a four stage process at Hamble.Many rejects followed the next obvious step by growing hair long & going to unheard of Universities in order to take three years off at Tax-payers expense & graduate (if that is the word) with unheard of, second class degrees (if they graduated at all) & take up jobs as bus drivers. We mustn't take his lament too seriously although we all know MP's are unable to make informed decisions because most of the time,they are NOT informed. They are also horrendously blinkered and easily pursuaded. Not the group to run an international airline but there we have it. They do so because they were given that power & GF will continue to suffer.

Of course their call to employ 100 unemployed, minimally qualified pilots to replace expats, just because the former are Bahrainis is daft. We can all see that, even MacDonald (doesn't he run a Farm ?) !But the MP's, who run at an agenda are open to lobby. Get Lobbying if that is your only route .

Get mean, get lean but keep the best human assets, irrespective of race.

[Almag]

Today @ 3pm

Meeting with HE Minister of Transport
sent on behalf of COO to all pilots

or FW: Meeting with Bahraini Pilots
sent on behalf of the Director of Coorperate Affairs and secretary to the Board.

[LNAV VNAV -]

Well, anybody went to the meeting??

[Flightpathvector]

Guys as i said run baby run.
This is the deadline for the expat. The minister give us some news. Riduction of fleet and keep habibies. So that mean the are preparing the wastebin for the expats starting from cucarachas guys and then up on performances base for the others. That's the appreciation for the peoples who serves the company for many years.
And all the stories finish in glory.

[ALFOPROF]

Briefly. Fleet reduction and expats at home.

[Panama Jack]

Perhaps just a little to brief there, ALFOPROF.

Could you quantify that please?

[ALFOPROF]

For details ask to fleet office but i guess that for expat is over starting from EMB

[buba]

The meeting basically was focused on the general situation of Gulf Air, it did not contain any technincal issues like other pilots meetings. Basically the Minister came and adviced that he was assigned to monitor the Board members at this phase of the change in Gulf Air, and since the pilots are an important factor he was adviced by the board member to talk to us. His main points were: 1- Gulf Air will not shut down, but the market is no longer as it was like before. The market shrank alot but GF remained the same size and thats why we have excess of manpower.2- GF will shrink but not as it was mentioned in the papers, it will shutdown some stations which are loosing and aswell is not benifiting Bahrain. So for example even if London is loosing yet it wont be closed as being an important hub.3- Bahraini Pilots will not be reduced, but the Expats might get affected with the reduction. The exact numbers will be announce soon and over phases.4- The fleet will only be consisting of Airbus 320 and 330 no more E170 and E190.5- For the time being there is no Idea about merging with Bahrain Air and that is not the case now.6- On the long term, there might be a plan to merge Gulf Air, Gulf Technics, GAA and Bahrain Airport Company.7- Corruption will be monitored and we advice every employee to report through the propper channels to fight such things.8- GF has been loosing over the years though one management to another and it has not been yet solved out. 9- The target now is to stop the bleeding, stabalize the company and then if situation permits we go for growth.10- Regarding the Bahraini pilots who are waiting for their Ab-initio training, the company would be happy to take them, but if the number of pilots has reached the requirements then they cannot just hire them without needs.11- People in the management from now on will be monitored for their Accountability, the Minister focused on having the right person at the right position. It does not matter if it is Bahraini or Expat as long as the job is done proffessionally and accurately.12- It is important for all our pilots to work together at this stage until things get stabalized and stop the negative rumors or thoughts being spread specially on the operation of GF.13- The PM had a big effect on exposing GF to the public in a bad way, thats why now we need to gain the public trust again internally and externally.

[LNAV VNAV -]

Buba, were you yourself at the meeting?

I was not there but I heard from someone who heard from someone who was there, that the minister specifically stated that the fleet would be reduced to 20 aircraft in the near future. Is this wrong?

Also, check the diference in your post and the previous one:

''...but the Expats might get affected with the reduction. The exact numbers will be announced soon and over phases.''

''...that for expat is over starting from EMB''

[John21UK]

There is no set plan yet. If the first proposed plan is selected thigs are not THAT bad. If that is rejected things are looking very bad. Reading between the lines it looks like the fleet will be reduced to around 28-30 aircraft, not 20. They are trying to use 'natural outflow' to cover the biggest redundancy numbers. Redundancy is based on 1, aircraft type and 2, expats on juniority.

For me I felt the minister was a genuine guy with a no nonsense approach. He made a lot of sense but obviously could not say much as even he doen not know yet.

The 27th looks to be the main date when the plan forward is announced. Then that needs to be worked out and they need to get their numbers right, that will take another 2 weeks minimum.

Remaining A321's coming in January and Embraer will cover a busy scheduele untill the end of Jan. Then finished. A319 will leave end of December already.

[buba]

LNAV.. I was away, i was sent the above summary.

[ALFOPROF]

John from which planet you came from?
You want some clrearest then yesterday?
And he didn't say criteria is fleet and seniority!!! He spoke of performances and it mean company discrection.
Do you ask way yestarday this meeting like this?
Do you have still trust on this?

[John21UK]

Sorry, I'm not even going into discussion on that one. Did you attend the seperate meeting with the COO as well. Guessed not. Re-read note 3 and 4 in buba's post. I think we all know where we stand within reason. Did I crisicise? No. We'll wait and see...

[LNAV VNAV -]

John check PMs

[ALFOPROF]

Sorry john nothing against u! We r in the same deep. Anyway my opinion is that us expat are no more wellcome here. But is my opinion.
I don't know if the meeting continue after minister and in anycase i heard enough.
I'm packing... Is marsalama time

[ironbutt57]

I dont think its fair to say expats arent welcome, its just a matter of fact that if the redundancies occur, the Bahrainis have priority, and that seems quite normal to me, all us expats are hired migrant workers....

[John21UK]

Very true. However saying that all companies work with the same system of determening redundancies is wrong. Allmost everywhere it's last in-first out based on seniority. Not on fleet and nationality. But it's their playing field and their rules. Take it on the chin and move on and upwards. Everything is for a reason...

[Sal-e]

A number I heard was 20% of flight crew. Of course this was just a 'coined' estimate. Even so, one would not just 'coin' a figure when it hasn't been estimated.
Assuming that figure were a good guess, then one would extrapolate from that statement with the following estimates.

400 pilots of which 200 are expats, 20% being the bottom 40 of the expat seniority.

Just guessing.

[LNAV VNAV -]

And yet, on the careers page, Gulf Air is announcing that it is hiring DEC!

[thegypsy]

They would not be the first Airline advertising for Pilots just before they folded