Gulf Air and Google expand partnership

Muscat: Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, recently partnered with Google to sponsor Google Creative Skills for Innovation (CSI) lab, during Gitex Technology Week — the largest information technology exhibition and conference in the Middle East.
Google CSI Lab is focused on sophisticated problem-solving techniques that aid in developing an innovative mind-set teaching people how to tackle complex problems/opportunities and foster an innovation culture in a work environment.
Gulf Air’s support of Google CSI:Lab is in line with the airline’s corporate social responsibility initiatives – helping to increase the influx of technology and new ideas into Bahrain. Due to the success of the event, Gulf Air and Google are now looking to expand their partnership to develop and consider opportunities that will enhance the services offered to the carrier’s passengers.
Speaking of the partnership, Dr Jassim Haji, Gulf Air director Information Technology, said: “Gulf Air is always open to considering opportunities that can stimulate further innovation and improvement, especially from vendors as renowned and pioneering as Google. I look forward to what we hope will be a mutually beneficial and successful partnership.”
"Innovation must be at the heart of every business to be able to tackle future business complexities, business model evolutions and the speed of decision-making. Google CSI:Lab is an incredible methodology to help move faster in this new digital world, become more end-user driven and use a prototype-driven approach to tackling internal and external challenges," said Michael Korbacher, director Google for Work.
Gulf Air was recently honoured, for the third consecutive year, at the sixth edition of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) conference ‘Meet ICT’ and the Bahrain International Technology Exhibition (Bitex) – held in Bahrain earlier in January 2016.
During the last Gitex Technology Week Gulf Air won three major technology awards for the second consecutive year for “Best Hospitality and Tourism Implementation of the Year” and “Middle East Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Year” by Arabian Computer News, and “Best Project Execution of the Year in the Aviation Industry” by Enterprise Channel.
Renowned for its pioneering information technology achievements, Gulf Air was the first organisation in Bahrain to implement private cloud computing in its IT operations and thereby introduced numerous innovations and improvements in its IT function.
In 2015, the airline successfully rolled out its new generation iPad Electronic Flight Bags, thereby eliminating the need for paper-based manuals and procedures and going electronic to further improve flight operations and achieve major cost-savings.