National carrier Gulf Air said it has won one of the most prestigious awards at the recent Gitex Technology Week in Dubai.

The airline was chosen as the winner of the award from over hundreds of entries in the category of 'big data solution project'.

Gulf Air won for its implementation of the technology aimed at processing huge and complex volumes of data, to create a system to monitor and analyse online Arabic dialogue about the airline, reported the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication.

Created using open source big data solutions, the highlight of the pioneering system is its unique ability to handle the complexity of Arabic language by factoring in colloquial forms, including regional dialects and informal phrases, into the analysis.

The event also saw Gulf Air winning two other major awards - one from Arabian Computer News for Hospitality & Tourism for 'implementation of the year', which is the second consecutive win for the airline in this category.

The other award, received from Computer News Middle East (CNME), was in the 'achievement of the year' category, for the airline's implementation of big data on cloud computing platform.

"These awards reflect our commitment and focus on information technology excellence which is vital in the aviation industry today," said Gulf Air director of information technology Dr Jassim Haji, who received the awards.

"We are delivering on our promise to continuously improve our services to better meet the evolving needs of our passengers through utilising newer and smarter technologies to make their travel experience more enjoyable and satisfactory," he added.

Bahrain's national carrier has been at the forefront of introducing several improvement and innovations in its operation, said the report.

The airline was the first organisation in Bahrain to introduce private cloud computing in its information technology operations that enables it to achieve much faster and more efficient business performance, resulting in enhanced customer service at every step of a passenger's journey.-TradeArabia News Service