Assignment II
Research Proposal
Due to the current situation which Gulf Air faced, does staff reduction help the company financially?
Submitted by: Mohamed Khalil Alnazar
Supervisor: Dr. Ahmed Ali
The Kingdom University - Bahrain
December 2012
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Background:
Gulf Air lost more than BAHRAININ DINARS 380 million (US DOLLARS 1 billion) between 2008 and 2010, suffered deep losses last year after Gulf Air temporarily suspended flights to Iran, Iraq and Lebanon during the height of the Bahraini uprising. The exact scale of the losses has not been disclosed, but it is clear that the carrier’s multi-year turnaround and plan to break even has suffered a major setback.
A decade ago, Gulf Air was one of the largest players in Middle East aviation. As its multi-national ownership disintegrated due to various governments choosing to focus on their own national carriers, Bahrain was left as the sole owner. Locked out of its old hubs, Gulf Air faced a new and increasingly hostile competitive environment. It has also suffered due to high fuel prices, poor traffic demand and the recent unstable local and regional political situation, which continues to rumble on in Bahrain.
Gulf Air has been forced once again to reassess its commercial priorities. After launching a major turnaround in late 2009, the carrier made “significant gains” in 2010 according to CEO Samar Majali. Losses were cut from approximately BAHRAININ DINARS 190 million (US DOLLARS 500 million) in 2009 to BAHRAININ DINARS 135 million (US DOLLARS 360 million) in 2010. Over the two-year period, the carrier underwent a major route reorganization, cut staff numbers by nearly 1000 over 12 months – around a fifth of the total workforce – and launched a fleet renewal, which has seen the carrier’s average fleet age halved, bringing cost
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