Travelport and Sharaf Aviation Services Academy announce a pioneering new partnership

Dubai, 2012-12-14 — /travelprnews.com/ — Travelport, the business services provider to the global travel industry, and Sharaf Aviation Services Academy (SASA) – one of the leading providers of travel, cargo and aviation education in the Middle East – have announced a new partnership, which will see SASA become the first education facility in the Middle East to be officially accredited by Travelport Academy.

Dubbed as Travelport’s learning “hub”, Travelport Academy is a one-stop online shop for travel industry training designed for students, educators or private training establishments looking to build or expand their curriculum.  All Travelport Academy courses are Travelport accredited, aiming to prepare graduates for “real world” travel industry jobs.

As a result of the new collaboration, SASA – which opened in Dubai in October 2012 and offers IATA International Travel and Tourism Training Programmes – will become an accredited provider of Travelport’s Galileo Professional and Advanced courses and gain full access to its Galileo distribution systems.

“As a leading provider of travel and tourism training in the Middle East, Sharaf Aviation Services Academy works to ensure that our students have access to the best training systems and content available,” said V. Jayaram, Managing Director, SASA.  “Travelport shares our goal of providing world class training to travel agents in the region and worldwide and their industry leading solutions will add a new dimension to our existing courses. We now look forward to working closely with Travelport in implementing their training solutions and passing the benefits on to our students.”

“This is very exciting news for Travelport and for SASA as it’s the first time Travelport has officially accredited a major education provider in the Middle East to deliver training on our technology systems and to distribute our products,” commented Rabih Saab, President and Managing Director, Middle East and Africa, Travelport. “Travelport Academy was set up to provide valuable education tools for travel professionals and for people looking to get into the trade. This new partnership is therefore a great example of how education providers and industry experts, such as Travelport, can work together to shape and develop the future of the travel industry in this region.”

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Contact
Baiba Upmale
PR Manager – Middle East
Tel: +971 4 3614836
Mob: +971 566 569535
Email: baiba.upmale@travelport.com

About Travelport (www.travelport.com)

Travelport is a broad-based business services company and a leading provider of critical transaction processing solutions to companies operating in the global travel industry. With a presence in over 170 countries, approximately 3,500 employees and 2011 net revenue of $2.0 billion, Travelport is comprised of the global distribution systems (GDS) business, which includes the Galileo and Worldspan brands and its Airline IT Solutions business. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Travelport is a privately owned company. Follow Travelport on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Travelport

For more information on Travelport Academy visit www.travelportacademy.com

About Sharaf Aviation Services Academy

Sharaf Aviation Services Academy is a division of Sharaf Travel L.L.C, a company well reputed for providing quality travel services to business and leisure travellers since 1991. Well supported by the Sharaf Group, one of the largest and most respected business conglomerates, with varied business interests and strong financial base leading to high levels of customer satisfaction. Sharaf Travel has today grown to encompass various facets of the industry – producing young talent to serve this ever growing industry, through Sharaf Aviation Services Academy, is one of its newest endeavours.

For more information please visit www.sharafacademy.com