Travelport, the business services provider to the travel industry, has announced the appointment of Ghulam Al Balooshi as interim General Manager for its Galileo operations in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Al Balooshi took the post in Jeddah earlier this month. He takes over from Faris Azzee, who has returned to Travelport’s Dubai office after more than two years in KSA, to assist with new business development.  In addition to the new role, Al Balooshi also retains responsibility for Travelport’s commercial activity in the Lower Gulf region.

A seasoned GDS and airline veteran, Al Balooshi joined Travelport in 2010 with more than 35 years of experience within the travel industry. He began his career in his home country of Bahrain with national carrier Gulf Air and has held senior-level commercial positions at both Sabre and Amadeus Gulf.

In his new role, Al Balooshi is responsible for all Galileo-related commercial activity in the Kingdom, which includes managing existing customer relationships as well as identifying new business opportunities. Travelport’s Worldspan operations in KSA will continue to be represented by Stargate Cyber Active.

“As the largest GDS territory in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia is a key region for Travelport,” said Al Balooshi. “After two years of overseeing commercial operations in the Lower Gulf, I now look forward to this new challenge and the opportunity to build Travelport presence in KSA.  My main focus is on strengthening our relationships with travel agencies in the region and making sure they benefit from our range of Travelport products including the ground-breaking Travelport Universal Desktop, Travelport Smartpoint, as well as our leading mobile technology.”