The Gulf Aviation Academy is leading the way in the provision of high quality aviation training within the MENA region. Based in the Kingdom of Bahrain, we are registered with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and are dedicated to supplying world-class training programmes tailored to meet the needs of personnel working within all aspects of the industry from pilots and cabin crew to air traffic controllers and engineers. We are constantly working to expand our operations and to deliver and increasing variety of programmes to suit the professional development needs of qualified existing personnel as well as new entrants to the sector.
Our History
The Gulf Aviation Academy was first established in 2010 and has gone from strength to strength in the intervening years. Since gaining approval and accreditation from the Ministry of Labour as a Vocational Training Institute we have worked constantly to achieve our goal of becoming the aviation training centre of choice for students not only from the MENA region but from around the globe.
Our Launch
In 2010, the GAA was officially launched and became the first EASA ATO to be located outside Europe. This unique selling point set us apart from our competition and still marks us as one of the most outstanding aviation training providers within our region. In the same year, we also gained EASA 147 approval for our engineering programmes and became a UK CAA cabin crew training organization as well as commissioning a second full flight simulator A320 for the benefit of our students.
2011 And 2012
A year after our launch in 2010, GAA became an IATA ATC and RTP while also winning the prestigious Aviation Awards accolade for Training and Education Provider of the year. Hot on the heels of our success, we also commissioned a third full flight simulator, this time an EMB 170/190 to give our students an even greater breadth of hands-on experience, closely followed by a fourth FFS (this time an A330) in 2012. In this year too we launched our MPL programme and scooped an award for being one of the top ten IATA regional training providers in Turkey.
2014 – 2016
In 2014, the GAA was awarded certification by the ICAO as an Aviation Security Training Centre. This enabled us to expand the range of courses that we could offer our students and to broaden the spectrum of study programmes which we could provide to aviation professionals. Our breadth of training was able to grow even further in 2015 when we launched our air traffic control training programmes and became an Airbus affiliated centre. With such outstanding progress in just five years, it wasn’t too surprising that we were able to win the Outstanding Award from the Education and Training Quality Authority in 2016.
2017 To The Present
2017 saw a fifth FFS (an A320) being added to our existing range of simulators. We also gained approval from the PMA (Port and Maritime Authority) in Bahrain which enabled us to launch our outstanding maritime training programmes. Once again, we were awarded the Outstanding Award from the Education and Training Quality Authority in 2018 as recognition of the impressive standard of the training courses that we offer. 2019 has been a busy and exciting year for our academy, with the launch of our airport training and management and leadership programmes. We also gained approval and accreditation from the Ministry of Labour as a Commercial Training Institute and gained IATA ATS status. Other 2019 successes include the awarding of our status as a KLM Engineering regional training centre and as a UK CAAi regional centre as well as the deployment of our sixth FFS (another A320).
With such an exciting and successful history so far, we look forward to what the future will hold in store for our academy as we work towards our goals.