The CEO of Bahrain’s national carrier, Jordanian-born Majali, took up the role in August last year, and is now on a determined drive to take the airline to new heights. The former chief executive of Royal Jordanian, Majali has served as president of the Arab Air Carriers Organisation (AACO) and was also chairman of IATA board of governors.
After suffering losses in 2009 of $500 million, Majali now wants to wean Gulf Air off state support and back into the black. In his year at the top, so far he has faced HINI, the downturn and the ash cloud crisis – making for a stormy ride so far.
But Majali is nothing if not optimistic. He has instigated a radical plan of cuts and savings in a bid to move towards a break-even situation in 2012, and says the plan is on track. Loss making routes have been scrapped; and new, better yielding destinations rolled out to re-position Gulf Air as a regional operator, serving routes in a three hour radius.
This year has seen new routes announced to Aden, Colombo, Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia; Basra. Iraq and Isfahan in Iran.
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