Airline Information Management System of Gulf Air Airline Company - Case Study Example

Gulf Air Gulf air is the company owned by the kingdom of Bahrain and is a national pride in Bahrain. Gulf air is one of the leading airline companiesof the world with its operations in major cities of the world. Gulf air flies to the busiest airports of the world like London, Paris, Dubai and Mumbai. Despite these destinations gulf air's aircrafts also fly to other destinations of the world as well. Golden Falcon represents the logo of the company which is shown as flying high on the company's aircrafts. Gulf air had a humble start more than half a century ago but it has since then blossomed into a very well established corporate entity since then. Assets of the gulf air company have become manifold as compared to the time it started its business. (Gulf Air Official Website, 2010) History The history of Gulf aviation relates back to the 1940s when a British pilot and entrepreneur named Freddie Bosworth started a company with the aim of providing air taxi services to the local customers and to the businesses. For ten years he was carrying on with the company with his small fleet of aircrafts and at the end of first quarter of 1950 he transformed his business into a private shareholding company with the name of Gulf Aviation. Therefore, it can be regarded as one of the oldest air carriers performing operations in the Middle East. After some time in 1951, the founder of the company died and it was all set to be sold to the big guns of the aviation industry. (Gulf Air Official Website, 2010) In the month of October of the year 1951 British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) acquired a 22% stake in the Gulf Aviation and therefore became a major share holder in the company. After the purchase of stake of the Gulf Aviation by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) some of the updated and technologically advanced aircrafts were added to the fleet of the company as well as the company started its services to London city. Year 1973 is regarded as the most important year in the history of the Gulf Aviation Company because in that year of 1973 government of Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Oman purchased the shares of BOAC in Gulf aviation. According to the treaty signed by the four states on the first day of the year 1974, all of the four states were awarded the 25% shareholding in the rebranded Gulf air. Thus by the acquisition of the shares of the company Gulf air became the national carrier of those four countries in the Persian Gulf. Moving further along the line in the same year, Gulf aviation achieved another land mark with the establishment of the subsidiary company of Gulf Helicopters. In the 1980s an increase in the trend of travelling by air was seemed in the world and the air travel was seemed to be the best commuting route in the world. With this opportunity Gulf airways also cashed in to make the best out of the bargain. It was the time of some real growth for the company and the company made the best out of the available opportunities. In the year 1981 Gulf Air became an IATA member and in the following year, it became the first International airline to land at Riyadh. With the progress of the company more and more aircrafts were also being added to the fleet of the company and in the year 1988 Boeing 767s were added to the fleet of the company and with the addition of Boeing 767s more services were offered to different customers of the different destinations. Gulf air also has the prestige of being the first Arab airline to fly directly to the continent of Australia. In the year 1994 Gulf air started receiving the airbus aircrafts and in the year 2000 took the delivery of all of the remaining airbus aircrafts. In the meanwhile gulf air extended its services to the other parts of the world and the procedure of expansion did not stop. In the 1990s gulf air was down on profits and was not performing well as a corporate entity when the reign of the fleet and resources of gulf air was held in the hands of a newly appointed CEO of the company. In the year 2002 Mr. James Hogan became the president and CEO of gulf air and devised a three year restructuring and turnaround plan for the company which was launched due to the ever decreasing profits of the company and increasing debt structure for the company. The board of directors of the gulf aviation unanimously approved the three year recovery plan for the company. In the mean time state of Qatar withdrew from the corporation of gulf aviation. (Gulf Air Official Website, 2010) In the year 2002 a three year restructuring and turnaround program is launched for the healing of the ailing situation of the company with the aim of enhancing the international and local management abilities of the company. For the fulfillment of this goal and purpose of the company in the coming three years, an Executive Management Entry Program and apprenticeship scheme is introduced. For the sake of promotion of the services offered by the gulf air, gulf air introduced a number of unique services to its customers which helped the company a lot in being distinguished among the lot. During this period Gulf air becomes the first Middle Eastern airline to introduce in fight chefs for serving the first class passengers travelling through the gulf air. Another distinguished program with the name of gulf air Holidays Arabian Experience is launched by the company. AIMS An AIMS stand for Airline Information Management System, which is a management system especially designed and developed for the particular needs of the aviation industry and is very useful in performing the tasks of the airline company with easy information processing and management. In the year 2002 the new system of Airline Information Management System or simply AIMS was adapted by Gulf Air throughout the span of its operations for all of the flights of the company. The flying crew of Gulf Air flights was using the same system for the management and processing of the information on board. During the same year Gulf air was able to put another feather in its cap by winning the Airbus Excellence Operational Award for the year 2000 and 2001. Gulf Air has made a series of changes in the management of the company and has thus transformed itself into a well governed and managed corporate identity. For this purpose Gulf Air has also unveiled its new corporate identity as a part of the progressive change management program. For the sake of customer's convenience, bunch of new services and facilities were added by the company which led to the success of the company among the competitors. Some of them are the introduction of electronic check and SMS technology for the first time in the Middle East region and some other packages like the new look frequent flyer program are also introduced by the company which made it the preferable choice of the customers. For the sake of parents who have little babies with them while flying to their destinations, Gulf Air brought nannies to take care of their babies if they need to be, so that the parents can easily travel without getting fatigued due to extra work. These sort of facilities ensured that Gulf Air provides the best of the service to the customers and the confidence of the customers can also be seen from the fact that Gulf Air commuted a record of seven and half million passengers during the year 2004. Gulf Air is placed on the IOSA registry following the successful completion of the IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA). Due to the innovative strategies, policies and management of the company, Gulf Air was able to achieve the best results since 1997 with the growth of up to 23.8% in the revenues and also increase in the profits of the company. This rate of growth was achieved even after bearing the cost of 80 million dollars in terms of the soaring prices of oil and gasoline products in the world market. Thus even the hike in the prices of fuel was adequately managed and was turned into the best result in the favor of the company. (Summers, 2007) In the years 2005 and 2006 two of the partner states owing the Gulf Air withdrew from the company and left the company in the hands of the third partner state. Although one state has already withdrew from the company leaving the company in the hands of the one state only. Emirate of Abu Dhabi withdrew from the Gulf Air as it wanted to launch its own new airline company with the name of Etihad Airways. However with the withdrawal of Emirate of Abu Dhabi from the Gulf air, a series of advertisements were made in the city of Abu Dhabi thanking of the people and the government of Abu Dhabi because the airline was the national carrier of the Emirate for more than thirty five years and because the company has a lot of clientele in that region of the gulf. Gulf air also has the state of the art aircraft simulation facilities at its Bahrain Headquarters. This facility had cost the airline BD five and half million and the facility will offer real time and simulated on board training to the pilots of the company on different aircrafts that are in the fleets of the airline. On 27 April 2006, the Government of Bahrain and Thailand signed an 'Open Skies' agreement according to which an unlimited and unrestricted number of flights were allowed between the two nations. Therefore by the virtue of the agreement Gulf Air is operating daily flights from Bahrain to Bangkok, plus, four flights a week from Muscat. With the signing of this new agreement, frequency of Gulf Air flights to Thailand was doubled in July 2006, and during that time Gulf Air was making 14 flights a week from Bahrain to Thailand and vice versa. Mr. James Hogan resigned from his position of President and Chief Executive Officer (PCE) on the first of October 2006 and took the position of CEO at rival airline Etihad. After the departure of Mr. James Hogan from gulf air Mr. Ahmed Al Hammadi was named acting CEO of the company. After some time passed, the seat of the CEO of the airline was occupied by the Swiss national Andr Dos who has formerly served at Crossair and Swiss International Airlines. A few days after he was appointed as the CEO of the airline, he announced the new restructuring plan for the company which would cost around BD 310 million or USD 825 million. In this plan some of the routes upon which the company was operating the fights were cancelled and some of the aircrafts were also withdrawn from the fleet of aircrafts of the company. Some of the employee management policies were also made which made it difficult for the employees to work satisfactorily at the company and therefore, the company lost more than five hundred employees within the short time period of a month. The airline then stopped recruiting the additional staff and cut short its work force by 25%. In May of the year 2007, the government of Bahrain took complete control and ownership of the company as the joint owner of the company Sultanate of Oman withdrew from the airline. In the same year of 2007 Mr. Andre Dose resigned from the position of CEO of the company and was further replaced by Mr. Bjorn Naf as CEO of the airline. On 3 July 2008, Gulf Air was announced as the official sponsor of an upcoming English football club named "Queens Park Rangers". In the month of June of the year 2009 the present CEO of Gulf air Mr. Bjorn Naf departed from the airline and at his place another gentleman Mr. Samer Majali was appointed as CEO of the airline. Mr. Samer Majali has the experience of working at the Royal Jordanian. Subsidiaries Following firms are the subsidiaries of the Gulf Air Company Gulf Air Cargo Gulf Air Hotels Gulf Air Cars Sponsorship Gulf air sponsors different events and has a great reputation in the market for the sponsor ship of the events. Gulf Air is deemed to sponsor the events either relating to the sports and charity causes. Gulf Air has the history of taking full participation in the social activities of the society. Main events which are being sponsored by Gulf Air are Bahrain Grand Prix. This event of Bahrain Grand Prix is usually the third race of the Formula One season and takes place in the spring of each year. Gulf Air has also sponsored the English Football Championship Side Queens Park Rangers F.C. Gulf Air has also sponsored the Oman national football team in the year 2006. SWOT ANALYSIS: STRENGTH A good brand name Gulf Air's parent company is a diversified organization Customer-Oriented Approach WEAKNESSES Controlling such a huge organization is a problem Gulf Air's prices higher than its competitors Advertisement policies are not coherent OPPORTUNITIES Advances in modern technology have reduced the marketing costs Decreasing oil prices can increase the profits THREATS Current Economic global downturn Decreased travel due to terrorism issues Increased Competition in the industry Profitability of the company: As we can easily see that in the recent years, Gulf Air's profitability has increased massively. This has been due to the fact that Gulf Air has entered into many ventures with the world's leading airlines. In particular, it has signed some profitable business agreements with Jet Airways which boosted the company's profit and helped the company to go from strength to strength. References Summers, Mark.(2007) "Air. Wednesday 25 July 2007. Retrieved on 17 April 2010. Gulf Airways. (2010). Gulf Airway's Official Website. Retrieved on 18 April 2010. www.gulfair.com/ Read More