Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, recently won Computer News Middle East's (CNME) annual CIO 100 Award for the 4th consecutive year, “becoming the first organization and first airline in the Middle East to do so.”

Recognized once again as one of the top CIOs in the Middle-East, this award honors the innovative ways in which organizations use information technology to deliver competitive advantage and enhance business.

Gulf Air states that the 4th win demonstrates its technological capabilities in activating the latest technology to enhance operations and productivity while reducing costs.

On receiving the award from Hazem Bazan, Dell Middle East’s Gulf & Levant regional director, Gulf Air Director of Information Technology Jassim Haji said: “On behalf of Gulf Air I am delighted to receive this award — a testament to our longstanding and ongoing capabilities and commitment to delivering the best IT solutions to enhance and strengthen our business.”

Recently, Gulf Air became the first airline in the region to be certified with Information Technology ISO certifications in the three areas of quality management, service management and information security management systems.

To date, Gulf Air is one of few regional airlines to hold the global ISO certification for its information security management system. The national carrier’s most recent IT achievements include being the first organization in Bahrain to introduce private cloud computing in its IT operations that enables it to achieve much faster and more efficient business performance, resulting in enhanced customer service in every step of passengers’ journeys.

Gulf Air also recently rolled out electronic flight bags across the airline’s fleet and pilots, thereby moving from a paper-based flight manual to an electronic process that offers advanced information management and delivers more accurate aircraft performance calculations, creating significant time and cost savings while increasing safety and streamlining the management of flight information.