JEDDAH, 28 January 2003 — Gulf Air, the national airline Kingdom of Bahrain, the UAE, and the Sultanate of Oman, has started 2003 in a buoyant mood. Its Saudi Arabian Manager Hamza Mohammed Sherif, who recently returned from the airline’s worldwide sales and marketing conference in Bahrain, said that Gulf Air President and Chief Executive James Hogan told more than 200 personnel including area managers, airport managers and sales managers from across the airline’s network, that there was ‘nothing stopping Gulf Air from regaining its position as a world class airline.’ "The Board gave us exactly what we asked for," he said. "Now it’s up to everyone in Gulf Air to work together as a team to ensure its implementation and the success of a mandate to run the airline on a commercial basis. I’m confident the tough targets we have set can be achieved. We’ve made a good start. At the mid point of last year we were looking at a loss for 2002 of nearly SR 498 million. Together we were able to reduce that to SR 418 million," he said. The plan aims to reduce the airline’s debt to SR 199 million by the end of 2003, and to break even by 2004, achieving a SR48 million plus during 2005. Hamza stated that the airline had allocated its biggest ever budget to sales and marketing to drive the commercial restructuring of the airline. The airline currently operates weekly seven flights from Jeddah, and 11 flights each from Riyadh and Dammam to Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Muscat together. "2003 will witness one of the biggest, most creative and most exciting campaigns in Gulf Air’s history to consolidate on what we have achieved so quickly in the second half of 2002." It was also announced that the airline is set to appreciably build the depth of its route network with a significant increase in flight frequencies over the next three years. A measured expansion of the network is also planned with some strategic destinations being added over the duration of the three-year recovery plan. Fareed Al Alawi, Gulf Air vice president-networks said that Cochin, Sydney, Athens, Johannesburg, Salalah and Alexandria are being evaluated to be part of the summer schedule (from 1 June, 2003), while other destinations in Africa, Asia and the Americas are under consideration for future years. (KSR)