His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Bahrain Crown Prince and Economic Development Board chairman, has urged the board of national airline Gulf Air to protect the rights of the employees during its restructuring.

Prince Salman stressed the need to collaborate efforts by the government, parliament, the EDB and the airline's board to speed up the provision of support requirements for sustaining the operations of the company.

The call was made on Friday night during an extraordinary meeting of the executive committee of the EDB, chaired by HRH the Crown Prince, to discuss the situation at Gulf Air.

The decision maintains the continuity of Gulf Air as one of the most important economic achievements of the kingdom, a symbol of its connectivity and an enhancer of the global image of Bahrain.

The three points of focus outlined by HRH the Crown Prince as the revamp plan are: securing the rights of employees and protecting their families; financial support for the company to enable it to continue and overcome its crisis imposed by the global downturn; and ensuring complete transparency in the next stage.

Gulf Air chief executive officer Samer Al Majali outlined the airline's furture programmes.

The committee then had a detailed discussion initiated by Deputy Prime Minister Shaikh Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, who backed the importance of efforts to enhance the status of the national carrier.

HRH the Crown Prince directed officials to hold a high-level meeting within the next few days to look into the details of the rescue plan.

Probe to continue

Meanwhile, the head of a probe committee investigating into Gulf Air said Parliament will continue its investigations despite the transfer of its ownership from Mumtalakat to the government.

The reason behind the transfer is to avoid the committee, Abdul Haleem Murad told our sister paper Akhbar Al Khaleej.

He claimed Mumtalakat had injected a lot of money in Gulf Air on the pretext of achieving profitability by 2010.-TradeArabia News Service