Bahrain has regained full ownership of Gulf Air as Oman - one of the joint owners - pulled out from the loss-making airliner on Saturday. With Oman’s withdrawal, Bahrain becomes sole owner of the company after nearly 33 years.
Gulf air vice-chairman, Mahmood Hashim al-Kooheji, said that in an EGM (Extraordinary general meeting) the decision for 100 per cent ownership of Gulf Air was passed unanimously. Oman handed over the 20 per cent stake that it had in the airlines, making Gulf Air a 100 per cent Bahraini airline. The EGM was attended by high-level delegations from both the countries. The details of the handover are being processed. Mahmood al-Kooheji said:
There is a committee evaluating how much each party is to be receiving or paying ... The committee has been given a maximum of six months but we think it will be (finished) much earlier.
During the 1970s, Gulf Air was the joint carrier of Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. However, with several Arab states increasingly focused on developing their own national carriers, the ownership of Gulf Air was left in the hands of Bahrain and Qatar. Now that Oman is out of the ownership scheme, Bahrain is free to develop Gulf Air as a channel to develop its tourism sector. Oman on the other hand, is increasing its stake in Oman Aviation Services - operator of Oman Air.
Bahrain faces a tall order in trying to revive the fortunes of Gulf Air, which has been leaking losses to the extent of $1 million a day. In addition, the airliner has recently planned to cut routes and shed as many as 1500 jobs in a bid to improve its financial performance. Also to achieve its financial and operational goals, Gulf Air will downsize its fleet from 34 to 28 aircraft. In line with its goal to simplify the business, the company will move to an all-Airbus fleet replacing its existing Boeing fleet. The restructuring plan aims to achieve profitability by 2009.
Source: Gulf-times
