Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain, 3rd December 2012: Bahrain based Gulf Aviation Academy (GAA) have announced today extending their training agreement with Qatar Airways through signing a long-term, comprehensive aviation training agreement for the Qatar Airways flight crew.  As per the agreement, the training will be delivered at the Academy’s training facilities in Bahrain. 

GAA will provide Qatar Airways with a holistic training services package for their A320 and A330 aircraft fleets. The training services include A320 and A330 simulator training, utilising GAA instructors, quality systems and approvals, in addition to handling their scheduling, visa arrangements, accommodation, transport and meals during training.

The Academy is also in the final stages of acquiring the necessary regulatory approvals to start providing cabin crew and ground training services to Qatar Airways.

“Qatar Airways’ rapid expansion across the airline’s operations requires a robust training partner in order to meet the demands of our growing route map. Gulf Aviation Academy will continue to support us in the training required for Qatar Airways flight crew,” said Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker.

Commenting on the agreement, Mahmood AlBalooshi, Chief Executive Officer of GAA, said: "We are very excited at the opportunity of training the flight crew of Qatar Airways, the SKYTRAX worldwide best airline of the year. This agreement truly displays the level of confidence Qatar Airways has in GAA to provide a complete package of aviation training services on a long term basis, and is a testament of the level of training quality and customer focus that GAA provides to its clients,”

“GAA has been recognised as a leader in providing aviation training excellence in the MENA region, and signing this key agreement with Qatar Airways represents a great opportunity for us to further strengthen our position and is certainly a beginning for a long and mutually beneficial partnership with Qatar Airways.” Mr. AlBalooshi concluded.

GAA’s training facility is the first aviation training centre in Bahrain. The Academy commenced operations after its launch in early 2010, and is now one of the few internationally certified aviation training centres in the region.  GAA is a UK CAA TRTO and also has Bahrain CAA / QCAA / DGCA / KDGCA / GACA training approvals and offers a wide range of high quality aviation training solutions for the aviation industry in the Middle East and North Africa region. GAA’s Simulator Centre currently has seven simulator bays with the capacity of training Thousands of pilots annually.

The Academy is also an IATA Regional Training Partner (RTP) and an Authorised Training Centre (ATC).  Additionally, GAA has been recently recognised as a Top ten Middle East International Air Transport Association (IATA) Authorised Training Centre (ATC) for 2012, in recognition of GAA’s outstanding contribution in developing human capital by reaching out to the next generation of leaders in the evolving air transport industry in the MENA region.