‘Our Niche Is To Become The Best In Class’ – Gulf Air’s Competitive Focus For The Future
Gulf Air may have a long history, but has lived in the shadows of its younger and now much larger regional rivals over recent years in what has become a highly competitive landscape across the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. Now, its CEO Krešimir Kučko is working to deliver a new business strategy, using a fleet renewal process and a product and service focus to stand out from the crowd, in what he describes as #yearofchange.
Transcript
Krešimir Kučko:First of all, pleasure to be here. It's always a delight to come on CAPA events. Well, you indeed have a point. The environment in GCC MENA region is very competitive, not only because of 3 big ones, but also because of a lot of developments happening lately with the new orders, new companies establishing, but also for us put additional challenges. challenges, which we answered this year, starting to answer this year by introducing our new strategy with our clear strategy goals. And for us, this is a year of change, #yearofchange, and it's dominantly meaning implementing the strategy, which means one of the key pillars is to be the best in class, to create a boutique company, boutique approach to the airline business, because definitely the region needs this. This is our niche. That we like to serve the best we can. So we introduced this year a new brand, new logo, new livery, new uniform, new aircraft, so completely new product as a part of the strategy to be the best in class. So if you look at our business class product, it is actually by industry standards, we are talking about first class, and first class, one of the best first class in the region. So talking about the pitch, which is 89 inches, talking about the luxury of the seats, the size of the screen, but also for the economy class, also by pitch, by the size of the screens, and the superior in-flight entertainment system. So all in all, complementing with the new network, we're opening— this year we open 6 routes, new routes, and increase frequencies to the existing ones. Same will happen for the next coming years. So in the 5-year plan, the target is to reach around 60 destinations in total with a fleet of roughly 40 aircraft. Well, as for the long-haul, at the moment it's Airbus A330s, which will be replaced by Boeing 787-9. We already have 4, the 5th is coming in a week's time, and 5 more in the coming years, coming 2 years actually. For the short-haul and medium-haul, it's the A320 family, A320neo, which which already we received, which is very interesting because we were the first company in the region receiving A320ceo, and now we are the first company in the region, in the home market, GCC MENA, receiving A320neo. And so these aircraft should make it our home market, our short-haul routes strong enough to make a successful opening of the long-haul and ultra-long-haul routes, which is for us, in our case, we are talking about America. Well, key markets is definitely, it's our home market, so the complete GCC MENA. We are targeting more premium leisure markets, so we're going to open next year Malaga and Maldives, for example. But ultimate goal is, of course, to make hub strong enough to support loads for New York, most likely, but also opening another new destinations in emerging markets like China, for example. or Singapore. At the moment we did air our views, A320 to Frankfurt and Paris. To London we put a 787-9, so twice a day, so offering this superior product on our prime route. But in the future, our plans is to put A321s, actually neo, with flatbed seats, and that shows as a good product. which perfectly match not only operational needs and limitations, but also the habits of the market. This will not happen, I mean, but it is a trend. I'm aware of the trend, especially on a long-haul and ultra-long-haul. It is definitely a need on the market for the premium economy. Regarding the passengers and the passenger habits and the passenger demands on the market, dominant market that we serve, there is no, at the moment, real need for premium economy, or it's very limited to certain destinations.
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