Samer Majali, the newly appointed chief executive of Gulf Air, brings to the office a lifetime's experience in Arab air transport, having been with Royal Jordanian for 30 years. Bahrain-based Gulf Air announced he would replace its Swiss CEO Bjorn Naf last Thursday, just three days after Majali's departure "at his own request" from RJ was announced.

From the outside, it looks as if the Gulf Air changeover had been in the offing: Majali, who will leave Amman-based RJ at the end of July, said last week that his future was under discussion but that it would become clear perhaps "within two weeks." He said it was "time to move on" after having led RJ for eight years.

For its part, Gulf Air says Majali will take over "within the next few months," until then chairman, Talal Al Zain will manage the business as temporary "executive chairman." He thanked Naf for "his leadership over the last two years." Although Gulf Air acknowledges Naf was "instrumental in implementing several key initiatives towards [our] ambitious realignment program," the airline says Majali is the right leader to take the airline forward as we move into the next phase of our strategy to rebuild the business. We have important plans for the future of Gulf Air."

Under Samer’s leadership, Royal Jordanian was modernized with a rationalized route network and new fleet, as well as privatized, the first in the region. During his tenure, the airline joined the Oneworld alliance, also a first for the region. He has been president of the Arab Air Carriers Organization and chair of the International Air Transport Association board of governors. Gulf Air said Naf is leaving the business to pursue other interests having served the airline for two and a half years.

The very abrupt change was announced just hours after Naf had appeared in London to address the Aviation Club of the UK, where he said the current recession is a catalyst for radical change, providing the wake-up call the entire air-transport industry needs. "We now have the opportunity to implement tough measures that will stand the test of time, not simply enable us to limp on until the next crisis or disaster."

Arguing that the global downturn could be "the best thing to have happened to the industry," he said that for many carriers squeezed cash-flow has turned strategic aspirations of profitability into "the tactical necessity of survival." Naf predicted that consolidation, collaboration, and creativity will define the next development in commercial aviation, leading to "a leaner, stronger, more profitable and customer focused industry."

Currently, its shortcomings have been "brutally exposed," but change is already afoot if not yet fully airborne. "In part it has happened in Europe, where we have witnessed the aggressive emergence of the low-cost carriers (LCCs), while the major network carriers consolidate their position through acquisition and merger."

His principal concern was with operators like Gulf Air that comprised a third category: "Let’s call [them] medium network or niche carriers, who perhaps find themselves between the ‘rock’ of the majors and the ‘hard place’ of the LCCs."

Putting a more positive spin of the "desperate situations require desperate measures" principle, Naf said that acute challenges required acute solutions, even if that meant closure. "Relying on governments to put the airline industry next on the list for state aid and emergency bailouts is a wholly negative, indeed a regressive, step for our industry." Acknowledging possible exceptions – "national or legacy carriers" – he said the harsh reality is that some carriers "will, and conceivably need to, go to the wall."

While most of the recognized Middle East airlines exist primarily to promote their local economy and the country’s interests internationally, government subsidy for European national airlines has been replaced by equity raised through privatization. "For many years profitability, at least in the good times, has been the watchword but in the Middle East, profit (if any) is a rare, albeit welcome, by-product – until now."

Naf said government-owned national airlines are expected to please all stakeholders. "Unfortunately, we all know that by trying to please everyone, often no one is satisfied. Too many compromises are required – and these in turn eat into profitability." Without privatization, profitability required tough decision-making, and a complete change in mindset, said Naf.

In what proved to be his swan song, he summarized the airline's recent history and future plans. In 2007, Gulf Air "started to take those tough decisions to reshape the airline from national flag carrier to profit-driven, 21st-century airline. First, we addressed costs by cutting routes, grounding aircraft, and reducing our workforce. Second, we evaluated and introduced initiatives to achieve increased operational efficiency across the business. Third, we streamlined the airline around its new single home hub in Bahrain [to create] a new customer-friendly schedule with shorter connection times and better services to key destinations."

Gulf Air's final tactic had been to identify ways to control future operating costs through acquisition of modern equipment, ordering 35 Airbus A320s and A330s to replace existing equipment and 24 Boeing 787s. The first new A320 was due to arrive in September and all ten would arrive by June 2010, along with four new A330s, Naf told Aviation Today's Daily Brief.

Meanwhile, the airline is adjusting capacity and has withdrawn one of its existing A320 and an A330; it is planning "over time" to phase out all nine A340s, for which it is currently negotiating terms with brokers for the placement of two. Gulf Air's leased Boeing 777s will be returned to India's Jet Airways.