GERALD BUTT / NICOSIA
Gulf Air plans to standardise on the Airbus A330 for its widebody fleet in a re-organisation which will cut fleet size from 30 to 28 aircraft.
"We have conducted studies, and the A330 has been chosen as our long-haul aircraft. We will phase out the rest," says the airline.
Gulf Air operates 18 widebodies on its medium- and long-haul network - four A330-200s, five A340-300s and nine Boeing 767-300ERs. Twelve A320 narrowbodies fly the airline's short-haul network.
The airline intends the A330s eventually to take over all medium- and long-haul routes. This will involve acquiring further A330s to replace the A340s and 767s - although Gulf Air says this would be done gradually since many of the aircraft are still relatively new.
The company acknowledges there will still be a need for narrowbodies on intra-Gulf routes, "but fleet revisions for these services will only be decided when we have made a thorough study of destinations and frequency", it says.
The changes to the size and composition of the fleet are part of plans to improve the company's financial status and overall performance. Earlier this year, Gulf Air received an injection of around $160 million from its owners, the governments of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, to help cover its debts, and hopes to start registering profits next year.
Source: Flight International
