Gulf Air opens redesigned, energy efficient Data Centre

Acting CEO Maher Salman Al Musallam said: “Gulf Air’s ‘Green IT’ initiatives follow the directives of His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifa, personal representative of the King, who  has shown keen interest in promoting green technology in  Bahrain.” 

Gulf Air, as a corporate entity has been actively pursuing a ‘green policy’ in its business functions. It successfully implemented cloud computing last year and said its  goal is to be the pioneer in adopting “green solutions” that would "help our organisation, our country and the environment by saving energy, cost and increasing productivity. The modern Data Centre is a very good example of this effort,”  Al Musallam said.

 

Dr Jassim Haji, Gulf Air director of information Technology said, “The fully revamped Data Centre has been redesigned with energy-efficient blade technology and virtualisation that cuts the power requirement by 50% and uses 30% less airflow, making it one of the most environment-friendly IT centres in the country.”

 

 “Similarly, through virtualisation we have reduced a substantial number of our physical servers resulting in 80 per cent less energy consumption. Besides cutting down our power and cooling costs and allowing more computing power in less space, these measures also help us to reduce carbon emission in our environment; for example, every server virtualized is equivalent to removing four tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the environment,” Dr Haji concluded. 

 

Gulf Air has successfully introduced a range of innovative solutions and practices across its IT domain – from networking to communications systems, from desktop management to IT business support services - which are not only environment-friendly but also prove to be cost effective and energy efficient resulting in higher productivity.

 

In recent times, Gulf Air has significantly reduced the use of hardware materials such as cables, wires, printers, desktops, servers that consume power, paper and time, adopted virtualisation, wireless networking, e-ticketing, Voice-Over-Internet-Telephony (VOIP) instead of wired telephones, and promoted recyclability and/or biodegradability of defunct products and waste.

 

Forthcoming green measures include e-form automation, SKyMeals application to reduce meal wastage through improved analysis and planning, introduction of wireless communications on the aircraft for “black box” recorders and replacing magnetic tapes with electronic recordings, online interface for information exchanges and reporting and, Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) that removes the need for paper based flight plans and manuals, to name a few.  

 



 

About Gulf Air

Founded in 1950, Gulf Air is the proud national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain. As a pioneering airline in the Middle East region with over sixty years of experience and expertise in flying people across continents, Gulf Air is today one of the most powerful brands and a name to reckon with in the global aviation industry. 

One of the prime objectives of Gulf Air is to connect Bahrain to the Middle East countries and the rest of the world. As such the airline currently operates the largest network in the Middle East with non-stop flights while providing seamless onward connections to other international destinations. The airline’s current network stretches from Europe to Asia, connecting 32 cities in 21 countries, with a fleet of 26 aircraft.  

In tune with the Kingdom’s economic blue print, ‘Vision 2030’, Gulf Air’s strategy is to build an efficient, commercially sustainable and dynamic airline that effectively serves the people and the economy of Bahrain and represents the Kingdom on the world stage. Reflecting the needs and aspirations of its customers, the strategy focuses on three core areas: a targeted, more focused international network; a superior, more consistent product; and a modern, more efficient fleet that will optimize value. Gulf Air’s goal reflects a commitment to the latest aviation technology complemented by the hallmark Arabian hospitality for which the airline is well known.   

Gulf Air is the official sponsor of the 2013 Formula One Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

 

For more information please visit www.gulfair.com

 

For media enquiries, please contact:

Katherine Kaczynska

Senior Manager Corporate Communications

Gulf Air Tel: +973 17338416 - +973 36500292

Email: katherine.kaczynska@gulfair.com