Gulf Air chops Sydney – confirmed
Gulf Air has confirmed that it is ending services to Sydney as reported exclusively in TravelMole last week, with services ending very soon on July 1.
Newly appointed Gulf Air CEO Andre Dose said in a statement that the route was making “heavy operational losses”, confirming also that he was closing six routes effective July 1, namely, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Johannesburg and Dublin, with the move allowing the carrier to re-allocate its assets more effectively.
The closure announcment comes after Robin Middleton Acting GM for Gulf Air in Sydney since the departure of Cramer Ball to Etihad refused to comment to The Mole last week on whether the Sydney – Bahrain route was one of the routes that would get the chop.
David Baker, Gulf Air’s PR representative in Australia would also not be drawn last week on the issue of the termination of the Sydney route, commenting then that the company had just appointed three new sales managers in Sydney and is currently considering application for the post of GM, which might be considered an unusual action for an airline rumoured to be closing down a route.
The closure of the route was premepted by comments made and exclusively broken in Thursday’s TravelMole, by the Deputy Chairman of Gulf Air, Mahmood Al Kooheji on Friday that the airline’s services to Sydney, Dublin and Johannesburg will be stopped.
David also said that Gulf Air had enjoyed a huge increase in high revenue and high yielding business and first traffic in January, but analysts are now asking if that is the case, how the route could be making such loses.
David confirmed to The Mole this morning that the route was being chopped and the decision to maintain and office in Australia had not been made.
He added that they had received no advice from Bahrain regarding whether the imminent appointment of a GM which was well underway, brought about as a result of Cramer Ball moving to Etihad would proceed, but he did say that it appeared extremely unlikely.
Gulf Air has sales, marketing, administration and airport management and staff in Australia and their fate is not know, but it is anticipated that there will be considerable fallout as a result. Gulf Air do not have reservation staff in Australia as reservations are undertaken by World Aviation Services.
Regarding codeshare opportunities, David said that no decision had been made on codeshares, but when Gulf Air last pulled out of Australia as a result of SARS and the Gulf War, codeshare agreements with Qantas were entered into, adding that the Gulf Air in Bahrain had issued the following statement, “Gulf Air is constantly reviewing its network and like every other airline it is looking at ways to expand its horizon.” “There are several options on the table, including the option of codesharing to destinations that are being discontinued or codesharing to new destinations the airline does not operate to.”
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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