Students, Women, Labour Markets, Oman Air and Gulf Air

Is it possible for a national carrier to be socially minded both in terms of its hiring practices and pricing mechanisms? Oman Air and Gulf Air seem to be making interesting headway in this regard.

"Oman Air, the national carrier of the Sultanate of Oman, has extended its special 'International Student Fares' into the New Year for Omani students between the ages of 12 and 25 who are enrolled in a full-time educational institution. This value added offer will allow students to benefit from reduced fares up to 25% on both domestic and international flights to any of the Airline's 41 destinations across the globe." 

Perhaps such practices exist in other region's and I simply haven't heard of them yet, but I think this it's a great way for a carrier that is based in a part of the world where 50% of the population is under the age of 30 to adjust to demographic realities, assist young consumers and enhance brand equity (hopefully increase market share too).

From the labour market side, Gulf Air has made it a priority to give women a greater role in the workforce. The carrier recently hired its third group of six Bahraini female cabin crew to its network.

"The recruitment and training of Bahraini female cabin crew is a joint-initiative run by the airline and Tamkeen, an independent government authority that aims at improving Bahraini employability, job creation and social support, to encourage more Bahrainis, particularly females, to join the national carrier in key customer-facing positions such as flight crew by offering flexible scheduling benefits."

Perhaps such practices will set a new standard for corporate social responsibility which takes into account regional/national circumstances and hopefully consumers reward such behavior.

 

http://www.ameinfo.com/256448.html

http://www.tradearabia.com/news/TTN_193535.html

Gulf Air, Digecor Media Player and Priorities

Interesting news: Gulf Air is rolling out upgrades for inflight media entertainment. However, doesn't this carrier have much larger issues to deal with than throwing in a few extra inflight amenities? From its peak Gulf Air has descended from being a shared flagship carrier with co-ownership by the governments of the Kingdom of Bahrain, State of Qatar, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the Sultanate of Oman into a solely Bahraini carrier which struggles to be profitable with a mid-size coverage network of 48 destinations. In comparison Emirates covers a 97 destinations and has been profitable for many years, infact the carrier maintained profitability (albeit less profits) during the most recent recession.

With younger competitors in the region dwarfing Gulf Air (such as Etihad, Qatar, Airways and Emirates), Bahrain's national carrier may benefit from a more clear cut approach to bolstering marketshare by finding creative ways to deal with legacy issues by focusing on cutting costs and increasing revenues. The new CEO Samer Majali recently announced the carrier would focus on the medium haul marketplace, this is wise on multiple levels. The long haul routes are being cannibalized by Qatar Airways, Etihad, and Emirates. The medium haul region has strong fundamentals in terms of consistent growth in customer demand and increased aviation traffic. Etihad's move to compete with Indian LCC's by establishing all economy flights could be a good lesson for Gulf Air, showing that markets can be approached vertically and horizontally (meaning not just more routes, but more pricing segmentation of those routes to capture the traffic).

http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/gulf-air-rolls-out-media-players-across-fleet    (Below the new media player)

Etihad, LCC's, Major Carriers, India and the Gulf

While Qatar Airways and Emirates continue to expand into international long haul routes, perhaps Etihad is developing alternate levels of the market to compete within.  A market place can be approached at different price points rather than just expanding into more international routes. Etihad will soon compete with Indian Low Cost Carriers by establishing all economy flights servicing India - thereby giving an international carrier a different footprint to simultaneously compete in the large lower cost market. Perhaps its a matter of time before Gulf carriers begin utilizing a similar approach for the sizable Irani market where carriers such as Iran Air, Mahan Air and Iran Aseman Airlines sell tickets at much lower average prices than Gulf carriers are accustomed to.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Gulf-carriers-to-counter-Indias-budget-filghts/articleshow/7427772.cms