While the region's other big airlines are recruiting staff, Bahrain-based Gulf Air is shedding employees it no longer needs as it focuses on thinner, local routes.
In May Gulf Air's new chief executive Samer Majali - the latest to attempt to reverse the struggling fortunes of the Middle East's original network carrier - announced a voluntary redundancy or retirement scheme aimed at "optimising its workforce and improving efficiency". It has already reduced its staff numbers by more than 300 through natural wastage.
Gulf Air came up with the package after consultations with its trade union - Bahrain is one of the few Middle Eastern countries to recognise unions - and Bahrainis and nationals of its other former owner-states (Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates) are eligible.
However, former Royal Jordanian chief executive Majali says the airline is continuing its strategy of employing more Bahrainis, noting that the country's citizens make up 82% of non-flightcrew positions in Bahrain, and the overall "Bahrainisation" level is 54%. Training programmes are continuing, he says, to bring in Bahraini pilots, engineers and cabin crew.
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At the Bahrain air show in January, Gulf Air committed to two leased Embraer 170s, the first of what will eventually be a fleet of up to 10 regional jets. It mirrors a strategy he adopted at his former airline, where he withdrew many long-haul services in an acknowledgement that Royal Jordanian could not operate a global hub in competition with the big Arabian carriers. Instead, he focused on providing more feeder services from Europe and the Gulf into the Levant.
Source: Flight International
