Gulf Air expects its new all-economy service to rake in more revenues by focusing on the lucrative sector between the Gulf and the Indian Subcontinent.
The subsidiary all-economy service, Gulf Traveller, was launched at Dubai International Airport on the sidelines of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM). Gulf Traveller uses a fleet of six 767 Boeing aircraft from Abu Dhabi. Gulf Air president and chief executive James Hogan said the launch market an "exciting era in the history of the airline and regional aviation". The capacity of each flight will be 257 passengers, but fares are likely to remain the same. "Fares will be the same as Gulf Air - there will always be competing pricing," said Hogan, who added there would not be an extra over-head in operating the new service. "It will have the same Gulf Air management, the same reservation system and even the same Gulf Air flight members," he said. "We will be using six aircraft which we already have to reach a customer segment which utilises the service. "The focus is the economy segment. Instead of having two classes on the flight, there will be one." Gulf Traveller will be an all-economy, full-service airline. But it will offer have more cabin crew than regular economy class flights. "With a crew-to-passenger ratio of one to 39, it compares favourably with ratios of one to 44 - or even 46 passengers - on leading international airlines. This includes destinations in Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Zanzibar.