Gulf Air carries out virtual business continuity management drill

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

For the first time in its history as Bahrain's national carrier, Gulf Air has completed a 100% virtual business continuity management drill.

The Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) is the advanced planning and preparation of an organization to maintain business functions or quickly resuming work in/after the event of a major disaster has occurred. It also involves defining potential risks including fire, flood, cyber-attacks, pandemic …

The exercise was planned for the most critical business functions to assess the airline’s readiness to continue operations in the event of unforeseen situations or emergencies. 

The exercise was conducted on the actual airline operations last month by adapting the ‘Work from Home’ model. The recovery teams working from home assumed full control of operations, took over from the headquarter team for an extended period of time and performed all the operational activities remotely from their homes.

The main objective of this exercise was to assess if the predetermined Recovery Time Objective (RTO – time window was taken to resume the operations) of each business function are met and to assess recovery plan procedures and team members’ readiness for major incidents. 

Eight business functions were involved in this exercise- Integrated Operations Centre (IOC), aircraft maintenance, Crew Control, the Contact Centre, Flight Dispatch, Central Reservation Centre, Ground Services (TSC) and Information Technology. 

The exercise was successfully achieved using the latest state-of-the-art high-technology remote collaborative communication solution for instant decision-making. 

Following the drill, the Business Continuity Management Committee, headed by its chairperson Jamal Hashim, met with the airline’s Acting Chief Executive Officer Captain Waleed AlAlawi and submitted the final report of the activity. 

The airline’s Acting CEO hailed the success of the drill and emphasized the importance of technology for the airline’s business.