MANAMA, 4 April 2008 — The size of airports in the region is set to increase three-folds by 2011 in line with the unprecedented growth being witnessed by the tourism and leisure industry, a top official at Gulf Air said.
Bjorn Naf, president and CEO Gulf Air, while addressing Motor Sport Business Forum Middle East said here recently that the region’s sector would witness tremendous growth in terms of infrastructure and capacity of airlines to deliver.
He said that 500 new aircrafts would enter the region during the next seven years to meet the demand. The growth of aviation industry was 18 percent in 2007 and would be estimated at eight percent in future compared with the five percent in the rest of the world. The forum has attracted over 100 top decision makers in motor and car manufacturing industry, investors and service sector players.
Naf said that aviation has become one of the most rapidly growing sectors in the GCC and beyond and it was high time to seize the opportunities in this vibrant sector of the regional economies. Highlighting the salient features of his vision and business model of Gulf Air, a national carrier of Bahrain, he said that airline has had an enormous potential to grow.
He said: “We have a fleet of 35 aircraft and are flying to 40 cities in 26 countries. The airline has achieved many milestones and the months and years will see further expansion of airline which had already ordered 24 brand new B-787 Dream Liner planes to meet the growing demands on various routes while operating as a premier airline in the world. Gulf Air has a very busy schedule with over 840 flights a week which would obviously grow in line with demand. To date airline has around 5,000 employees.”
