BAS goes for off-airport concepts

Without revealing details, Bahrain Airport Services has said it will soon be ready to announce two new packaged-food concepts that it will launch in the domestic market. Speaking to PAX International, BAS Senior Manager Catering Services, Wolfgang Gortler, said that the company would launch these concepts into the Bahrain market initially from around March, before expanding region-wide.

He said that even with all the corporate restructuring taking place at Gulf Air during this year, the airline’s plans to abandon twin hub (Bahrain-Muscat) strategy, the tourist element in Bahrain has continued to progress very well, with passenger traffic up by around 24 percent this year at the airport. He added that BAS has also been approached to supply meals to a start-up airline in Bahrain. “We have also seen a very nice growth in VIP catering, and with this combined with long-haul premium growth, we see all segments growing,” said Gortler.

BAS said it is currently producing just over half a million airline meals per month, which is a slight increase from last year. Gulf Air naturally remains as the biggest customer, with 83 percent of all meals produced, and the fastest rate of growth. In the past two years BAS has made some changes to the work-flow in the kitchens, and it made some major changes at the beginning of 2007, with a refurbishment and re-equipping of the dishwasher and cart washer system. The company has also recently added new business in canteen catering, and it continues to add key accounts, most recently Cathay Pacific Airways.

“There are plans to extend the airport, and although there will be no direct changes in the BAS operations during the first phases, the investment and business growth is fantastic,” said Gortler. “Now the dust has settled on the Gulf Air restructuring, the road to recovery is in place, and the process for decision-making [at Gulf Air] has become easier.”

—Trevor Lloyd-Jones