Bahrain and Omans joint national airline carrier, Gulf Air, unveiled a two-year 825-million-dollar plan on April 17 to cut losses, now running at over one million dollars per day.
Gulf Air's new president and chief executive office Andre Dose, said that in addition to ongoing managerial changes the company planned to reduce its long-haul routes, reduce payrolls, and replace all the airline's Boeings with Airbus planes.
The restructuring plan, dubbed Get Well Programme, is expected to go into full effect as early as July, with the hope that the airline would achieve the new goals it for itself in 2009, officials said. Gulf Air board of directors Deputy Chairman Mahmood Al Kooheji said the airline's operations were currently losing more than one million dollars daily. If other costs such as financing were counted, the figure would be substantially higher. He said that accumulated losses and costs were expected to reach 254 million dinars (675 million dollars) this year.