Gulf Air pulls out of Australia

Finding a flight to Europe over the northern summer peak season will prove more difficult with the announcement by Gulf Air that it will no longer fly to Australia.
Bahrain-based Gulf, which joins the exodus from Australia led by European airlines, will scrap its flights from Sydney from July 1.
The airline, until recently headed by Australian expatriate James Hogan, says the decision is necessary if it is to survive. It is losing more than $US1 million ($1.2 million) a day. The tough cost-cutting program includes axing flights to Singapore, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Johannesburg and Dublin.

“This is the first fundamental step to securing our future,” new chief executive Andre Dose said.

However, the loss of Gulf is counterbalanced by the arrival of Abu Dhabi-based Etihad. Etihad and Dubai’s Emirates have both been given permission by the federal Government to expand services to Australia’s major airports.

But the Gulf decision comes at a time when airlines are shovelling more people into planes, meaning seats on some routes are becoming hard to find and fares are more expensive.

Flight Centre spokesman Haydn Long said finding seats on capacity-constrained Pacific routes remained a problem and said bookings to Europe were strong.

“Europe’s peak season is obviously going to be a problem for us,” he said.

“You can still get there, but the cheap seats have sold fairly quickly and it’s not always easy to get a seat.”