Gulf Air CEO Optimistic as Fleet To Double by 2023

Planning to receive a total of 39 new aircraft by the end of 2023, Bahrain’s Gulf Air has embarked on a connectivity and cost-cutting mission as CEO Kresimir Kucko prepares to start his second year on the job. Now with the airline 11 months, Kucko told an audience at the recent Airline Economics Growth Frontiers conference in Dubai that he harbors no aspirations to “fight” with the Gulf region’s so-called Big Three, but that Gulf Air will blaze its own trail toward prosperity.

In addition to 10 Boeing 787-9s, the airline plans to add 12 Airbus A320neos and 17 A321neos in the coming five years.

After undergoing another rebranding exercise in May, the airline now flies a fleet of 28 aircraft and appears in relatively good health, a situation that has not always lasted. Several changes at the top in the past decade, order cancellations, and an inability to match the runaway success of Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways, have bedeviled growth.

“It is complex," said Kucko while addressing the issue of competition in the Gulf. “You need to have your niche, and cost control. We are not going to fight the Big Three guys.”

He said that Saudi Arabia’s eastern province and the major conurbation around the city of Dammam represent an area of focus for the airline. “There are four to five million people in the catchment area of Bahrain Airport,” he said.

Construction began on the new $1.1 billion terminal at Bahrain International Airport in 2016. Schedules call for completion in 2019, increasing capacity from 9 million to 14 million passengers a year.

Kucko said marketing and advertising would prove critical to stimulating passengers to go to its distribution channel. “We are planning to be more aggressive and launch campaigns with the [Bahraini] tourism authorities,” he explained. “We have improved connectivity potential by one-third.”

In a sense, the airline came into being decades before the Gulf’s aviation potential became apparent. The national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain started operations in 1950, becoming one of the first commercial airlines established in the Middle East. It now serves 42 cities in 25 countries.  

In 1973, Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, and Oman took over the British interests that had participated in the founding of the airline over two decades earlier, giving each government a 25 percent stake in holding company Gulf Aviation. The operating company became the flag carrier for the four shareholders. By 2007, Bahrain stood as the only remaining party involved.

Kucko, who before joining Gulf Air served with Croatia Airlines for 25 years, said his airline had added six new destinations in 2018 and additional frequencies to key routes. This year, he said, the airline would see a 7 percent increase in daily departures, a 10 percent increase in seats, and a 16 percent increase in available seat miles.

A perennially money-losing airline, Gulf Air appears to have turned a proverbial corner and this year earned a profit, said Kucko, who cited IATA numbers to show that global airlines made profits of around $40 billion last year. Asked if his company operated profitably today, Kucko said: “Of course, like everyone else in the region.”

He added that the numbers this year look good, but that the budget was tight. “We are looking for a global footprint—with small feet,” he concluded.