What is Gulf Air's future plan with so many aircraft on order?
Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2017 6:19 pm
Gulf Air currently has over 55 aircraft on order, all due for delivery between 2018-20 and was just curious what exactly their plans are for these new birds?!
Currently the airline only has 28 aircraft in the fleet, and this small fleet was due to years of downsizing and loosing millions, optimizing themselves to become a regional carrier serving the needs of Bahrain and to stop competing with the big Middle East three carriers.
Currently they have a fleet of 22 A320/321's and 6 A330's, which seems a very respectable and simple fleet, to serve their needs. Allowing the A330's to serve the longer routes in Europe and Asia, and the A320 family to serve the shorter regional flights and to the Indian Sub-Continent.
Even assuming these 55 new aircraft replace the entire existing fleet, they currently have 16 787-9's on order, which is going to nearly triple their long haul fleet!
They also have 29 A320/321 NEOs on order, that allows for sensible growth, and possibly increase frequencies on existing routes on the short haul markets... However the oddball then appears when also have 10 Bombardier CS100's on order!
Where the hell are they going to deploy all these CS100's and 787-9's?! It just seems Gulf Air have not learn't from their past mistakes when they lost flag carrier status is Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Oman and had to dramatically transform themselves to a mino carrier of the Middle East. This whole process was extremely painful and they got through numerous CEO's with different downsizing plans.
I fear the airline is again heading aimlessly with plans which will end in tears,
Currently the airline only has 28 aircraft in the fleet, and this small fleet was due to years of downsizing and loosing millions, optimizing themselves to become a regional carrier serving the needs of Bahrain and to stop competing with the big Middle East three carriers.
Currently they have a fleet of 22 A320/321's and 6 A330's, which seems a very respectable and simple fleet, to serve their needs. Allowing the A330's to serve the longer routes in Europe and Asia, and the A320 family to serve the shorter regional flights and to the Indian Sub-Continent.
Even assuming these 55 new aircraft replace the entire existing fleet, they currently have 16 787-9's on order, which is going to nearly triple their long haul fleet!
They also have 29 A320/321 NEOs on order, that allows for sensible growth, and possibly increase frequencies on existing routes on the short haul markets... However the oddball then appears when also have 10 Bombardier CS100's on order!
Where the hell are they going to deploy all these CS100's and 787-9's?! It just seems Gulf Air have not learn't from their past mistakes when they lost flag carrier status is Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Oman and had to dramatically transform themselves to a mino carrier of the Middle East. This whole process was extremely painful and they got through numerous CEO's with different downsizing plans.
I fear the airline is again heading aimlessly with plans which will end in tears,