Gulf Air unveils new initiatives

Bahrain’s national carrier Gulf Air yesterday marked 61 years of successful service to Qatar with the announcement of a series of commercial initiatives tailored to suit the Qatari market. 
Addressing a press conference, Gulf Air Chief Commercial Officer Karim Makhlouf (pictured)said: “Qatar has a special place in the history of Gulf Air as it was not only a founding member of the airline but also has the distinction of receiving our very first flight into Doha on March 24, 1950. Since then we have flown more than a million passengers between Doha and Manama. And here we are today to commemorate this historic occasion, reinforcing our commitment to the State of Qatar.” 
Makhlouf also unveiled the airline’s new commercial initiatives. Gulf Air will be introducing Falcon Corporate Plus, a package designed exclusively for corporate travellers, offering a range of benefits that includes special price discounts and free upgrades from economy to Falcon Gold class. 
The airline is also coming up with a programme specifically for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Qatar that offers a range of incentives allowing both the member organisations and their travelling employees to earn miles that can be redeemed for free flights and upgrades. Gulf Air is also offering a special promotion for September, whereby customers purchasing tickets receive the second ticket for half price on all Gulf Air flights.
As the Middle East’s largest network carrier, Gulf Air flies nearly 700 flights per week to 42 destinations, 10 in the GCC and 23 in the MENA region, with five flights daily to Qatar from Bahrain. In addition, the carrier provides connectivity to some key destinations such as Addis Ababa in Africa, Kabul in Afghanistan and soon to be launched Juba in South Sudan two times a week.
Gulf Air’s Frequent Flyer programme has also undergone a major change; renamed ‘Falcon Flyer,’ the new programme offers members more attractive privileges and value-added benefits such as bonus miles up to 250%, guaranteed seats, priority baggage handling, half miles redemption and family membership. 
Gulf Air already has 9,000 Frequent Flyer members from Qatar. 
For families, Gulf Air will be introducing ‘Family First’ - a series of competitively priced packages for customers travelling with their spouses and kids, offering special privileges both on the ground and in the air. Gulf Air says this is designed to be an attractive package particularly for Qataris, who very often travel with their families on vacation. The airline is offering a ‘Sky Nanny’ service, where dedicated staff will tend to children on the ground and in the air.   
Most important of this suite of initiatives is the ‘Sky Hub”- the world’s first full connectivity system onboard Gulf Air’s long-haul flights offering high speed Internet, 3G-4G mobile data speed connectivity, voice over the Internet (VOIP) i.e. skype, streaming videos and the world’s first in-flight live TV via satellite. Gulf Air promises 100% connectivity for QR100.
Makhlouf said that the airline does not wish to compete with the other major carriers in the region in terms of worldwide connectivity and coverage, and instead wishes to focus on developing a strong regional network, tailored to the Arab passenger and families. 
As part of its network strategy to expand into niche markets, Gulf Air started services to eight new destinations since January 2011 in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and has recently announced the launch of services to three more destinations - Rome from November 30, Entebbe in Uganda from December 5 and Juba from February 7, 2012. 
The airline has acquired eight new A320 aircraft this year, bringing its total fleet size to 34, and is in talks with Boeing and Airbus to acquire more.

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