Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
National carrier Gulf Air, in a determined bid to attract new passengers and woo back disgruntled former customers, is picking up pundits for its punctuality.
The airline has set a new record of 85 per cent in its fleet punctuality during the first four months of 2009. It has shown a consistent performance in punctuality by achieving 86 per cent in January, 84 per cent in February, 86 per cent in March and 84 per cent in April.
The result has been welcomed by frequent flyers in particular. Publishing director Matthew Kirkman, 38, from Saar, said: "Since the New Year I have been moving around the GCC quite regularly and to date I have taken no less than 20 individual Gulf Air flights - and all have gone according to plan.
"Further to that, I have a sales team of 14 and they have been doing the same and all have gone to schedule. So, in total, I would say my department alone has taken over 200 individual flights and we have not been held up once."
Gulf Air CEO Bjšrn NŠf is delighted with the company's improved performance and aims to do even better.
He said: "Punctuality is one of the key factors that attract customers towards an airline and is an important service differentiator.
"This new punctuality record is a significant improvement in our fleet performance as we push ourselves to newer benchmarks in punctuality every time. Our sustained work towards achieving performance excellence, the revamped network with a customer-friendly schedule, faster check-in and checkout - all these have contributed to this achievement.
"We would like to assure our time-conscious business travellers that we are a performance-driven and a customer-focused airline and this record demonstrates our commitment to this."
The airline currently offers over 940 flights per week through its network aiming to provide seamless connectivity between Bahrain and the rest of the world. Gulf Air was founded in 1950 and is one of the oldest airlines in the Middle East. It is owned by Bahrain Mumtalakat Holding Company.
