Gulf Air president and CEO Andre Dose met with Bahraini and Omani staff members during an open session.

He spoke about the need for improvement to Gulf Air fleet's on-time performance and, clarified many of the queries and concerns raised by the staff members with regard to the early, voluntary retirement-redundancy package announced recently.

'We really have to improve on our on-time performance. All of us have to be aware of it and have to contribute to the improvement,' Dose said.

'To provide much more transparency to our work, we have installed Key Performance Indicator (KPI) screens in the main entrance hall of our building, showing detailed information about our daily operational performance. I want everybody in our company to know exactly where we stand in relation to our set targets,' he added.

Announcing the extension of the last date to apply for the early, voluntary retirement-redundancy package until October 3, 2007, he reiterated the improved cornerstones of the package.

'The package is voluntary, available for all Bahraini and Omani employees of Gulf Air,' he said.

'Employees, who are not applying for the package, will stay in the company and will keep their current jobs. This solution is possible because it was agreed that Gulf Air will get compensated by the government for the additional cost involved in this process. That way, Gulf Air can still meet its set goals for the turnaround and, all the Bahraini and Omani employees will have the stability they were promised by the Crown Prince,' he added.

'Applications from those, who have already applied for the package, will be processed quickly; in fact some employees were actually given their compensation on June 14, 2006. We will continue to make our best effort to do it as quickly as possible.'

In an answer to the doubts raised by a few staff members about some Gulf Air staff being moved to a service company, Dose clarified that there was no such plan to move any staff to any such company.

He further clarified that travel benefits for those, who take up the voluntary retirement package, will be governed by the conditions of the employment contract of the individual employee.Trade Arabia News Service