Gulf Air May Swing Back To Profit By 2010
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Bahrain Tribune: Bahrain-based Gulf Air expects to return to profitability by 2010 as the massive turnaround programme the airline is undergoing starts to pay off, its chief executive said.
When asked when the company plans to break even, CEO Bjorn Naf said in an interview: "In three years at the latest (...) from the time we have started (in 2007)."
"If the plan goes right, the fuel helps us and we're hedged, we will be there sooner than what people expect." The loss-making carrier last year cut its network and jobs and started to renew its fleet, after announcing losses of more than $ 1m a day. Naf declined to disclose the current size of losses.
Looking ahead, he said the decline in air travel as companies and families cut their travel budgets amid the financial crisis, would not alter Gulf Air's expansion plans. The carrier has 59 planes on order as it partially renews its existing fleet of 27 planes and plans to add three planes and three destinations each year until 2013.
Naf said he estimates only 15 percent of the headline-making plane orders from Middle Eastern airlines will actually add to seat capacity, as they will mostly replace existing planes.
He said Gulf Air's core markets, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent, would not be badly affected by the decline in traffic numbers expected for North America and Europe.
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