Photo: Do you have to add feathers when it's so obviously a turkey?
We got dragged into this disaster some time ago. The old CEO bought some pricey new planes, and it was downhill from there.
Whoever got us out of owning this airline, well, I think they deserve a medal.
We would have lost 100s of millions by now, with more to come, if not for that bold act of disposal.
Gulf Air 'may renegotiate plane orders'
Bahrain's Gulf Air may renegotiate plane orders with Airbus and Boeing, the carrier's recently-appointed chief executive Samer Majali said.
The struggling airline, which is fully owned by the Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat, also said it was open to merging with other airlines, but is not in talks yet.
Speaking to Reuters in a telephone interview, Majali said the company would "honour the terms of the contract" with manufacturers but may negotiate amending airplane numbers and sizes. Gulf Air has 35 Airbus and 24 Boeing aeroplanes on order.
Majali said passenger numbers were down 3 percent in the first seven months of 2009, while yields were 15 to 20 percent lower, compared with the same period last year. Capacity deployment is "very tight", said Majali, who hopes to achieve results close to last year's in the second half.
"Yields are still quite low and I'm not sure anything, globally speaking, has put major brakes on yields," he said.
The airline has seen three chief executives attempt to turn its loss-making operations around since 2002, cutting jobs and realigning its network as previous shareholders Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Oman gave up their stakes in the ailing carrier.
In 2007, the airline cut jobs and trimmed its network after reporting losses of more than $1 million a day. - Reuters
CAUTION: BELOW NOT RAMADAN COMPLIANT
Fasting? look away now
Meanwhile...
I signed up Muscat Confidential with the simply drop-dead sexy
Violet Blue
Photo: Cute.
and her new, amazing URL shortener vb.ly.
So now, if you type www.vb.ly/dragon
you should end up here!
Note: You may be unable to go to her blog from the country you happen to be in. Either way, I'd be interested to know what countries do allow access and which don't. Try and go to www.tinynibbles.com and report back via comments the country and either yes [Violet's blog accessible] or no [blocked].
