Sita aircom support vital to five-year gulf air expansion plan
Gulf Air, the national carrier of Kingdom of Bahrain, today announced a new five-year agreement with SITA for AIRCOM support as part of its overall thrust to offer more non-stop flights than any other airline in the Middle East.
Jalal Alqassab, Vice President Information Technology, Gulf Air, said: “We are offering 588 flights every week in the Middle East with more non-stop flights than any other airline and we are adding 24 Boeing 787 aircraft to our fleet over the next five years. SITA’s AIRCOM support is vital to helping us maintain our projected traffic increase over that period while containing costs.
“SITA’s AIRCOM services support communications for all our flight operations, aircraft maintenance and engineering, air traffic control and cabin administration, as well as passenger telephony and data services including Short Messaging Service (SMS) and e-mail. The service is excellent and will be further tailored to our needs as our route network expands.”
Hani El-Assaad, SITA Regional Vice-President, Middle East & Turkey, said, "Gulf Air is constantly innovating and understands the need to have the latest technologies in place to maintain a competitive edge. We are very pleased to be playing a key role supporting their strategy going forwards. With our AIRCOM solution, Gulf Air will experience further cost reductions and greater process efficiency, benefiting both the airline and its passengers.”
Alqassab added: “This is not the only SITA solution that Gulf Air utilizes, but it is one of the most important solutions needed to ensure seamless air-to-ground communications. With engine monitoring and status as well as flight plans, weather monitoring and data exchange between the plane and ground operations, this solution is essential for successful operations as well as to ensure the safety of an airline’s most valuable asset – its passengers.”
SITA is the world's largest provider of air to ground communication systems and has operated services via VHF and Satellite since 1985. With a global network of over 1,000 VHF/VDL radio stations, the AIRCOM Datalink service already provides communications to 7,500 aircraft from more than 150 airlines around the world.
