The Hindu Business Line : Where Indians are preferred

In April 2007, Mahmood Al Kooheji, Deputy Chairman on the Board of Directors of Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, announced that the airline loses about $1 million a day. Taking other factors into account such as the cost of servicing loans, the accumulated losses of the airline would total $675 million this year.

In this background, the Indian operations of the airline should be a huge boon, considering that it enjoys an 80-83 per cent load factor. In fact, as Rajeev Nambiar, General Manager of Gulf Air’s India operations put it, “All the Indian routes do very well for Gulf Air; actually by choice we are one of the most favoured airlines for Indians.”

It comes as a pleasant surprise to know that for the Gulf Air crew, “one of the most preferred and liked operations is the Indian sector.” When told that there have been earlier indications that the staff of a couple of airlines “hated” the Indian sector and sometimes had to be compensated with an extra “Off” day when on this sector, Nambiar said, “On the contrary, our staff have a great liking for Indians, not only those who fly out of India but also those who board our flights from other sectors.

This is because Indians understand, are warm and also caring. So if there is a problem on the flight and it is explained to them, they are far more understanding than many other nationalities. So the crew enjoys coming to India; of course shopping is also an incentive!”

Success story

Describing India as “one of our biggest success stories”, he adds that Gulf Air has been operating flights in India from the last 35 years. “Individually this is the biggest country where Gulf Air operates; we fly out of seven cities and have 60 frequencies a week; in no other country does Gulf Air have more than three or four cities.” These cities include Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Bangalore and Kochi.

Nambiar added that the schedules are being restructured from July 1 to ensure better connections from Bahrain, mostly in the morning, for onward flights. “When you feed in passengers at 8.30 a.m. into Bahrain, they have almost 15 connections into the Gulf and the Middle East.”

Sky nannies

He said that provision of sky nannies is a unique service that Gulf Air is offering “to help and assist parents with kids. The nannies — one per flight — will keep the children engaged with things to do, games to play etc. When the parents want to have breakfast or a meal, the child can sit with the nanny. We wanted to do something different; everybody provides a flat bed, good meal, video, etc. We thought we should do something to show that we cared, and we know how harassed parents are when they travel with small children.”

Sky chefs, sky beds in the priority classes in its Mumbai and Delhi operations are other comfort features on offer. A sky chef will “offer you a meal as though you are being served in a restaurant, and the chef will be available to First Class passengers out of Mumbai and Delhi from July 1.

Nambiar added that what he and his team try to remember all the time is that “in our industry, it is attitude that matters the most. It’s not the product, not the seat, not the food nor the lovely looking bird that flies in the sky, it is the attitude of the staff right from the time you book a ticket, check in and step into the aircraft to when you land, that customers watch closely. So food and other things are secondary for us; we try to show passengers that we care, by talking to them, and more important, listening to them, and serving them with willingness and courtesy.”