Bahrain Airport Company Reinforces Operational Resilience with Comprehensive Tabletop Exercises

Bahrain Airport Company (BAC), the operator and managing body of Bahrain International Airport (BIA), announced conducting a series of comprehensive tabletop exercises designed to test and enhance its Business Continuity Plan (BCP), conducted in collaboration with Watson Towers Willis (wtw), the global provider of data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital .

BAC’s Business Continuity Management (BCM) program, launched in 2017, provides a structured framework for sustaining and recovering operations during disruptions. The program focuses on crisis response, operational contingency planning, and integrating business continuity into core decision-making processes. A key component of the program is regular testing and evaluation of business continuity strategies, underscoring BAC’s commitment to maintaining uninterrupted airport operations and ensuring passenger safety.

The 2025 tabletop exercises, held over three weeks, involved rigorous testing of 22 Business Continuity Plans and various contingency procedures. Over the course of six exercises, scenarios were simulated to evaluate BAC’s preparedness for a range of potential disruptions. Participants included BAC employees, key partners such as Gulf Air Group, Gulf Air, Bahrain Airport Services (BAS), as well as relevant entities such as Airport Police, Customs Affairs, General Directorate of Civil Defence, Bahrain Specialist Hospital (BSH), the National Communication Centre (NCC) and supervisors from Bahrain Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA) and the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM).

Following the exercises, BAC Crisis Management Team (CMT) and Emergency Operation Center (EOC) members will be participating in targeted training sessions focused on performance reflection and gap resolution. Detailed debriefings and action plans will be developed to further enhance BAC’s Business Continuity Management (BCM) performance, benchmarking the Company’s framework against international best practices implemented by global airports.

BAC Chief Executive Officer Mohamed Yousif AlBinfalah commented, “Airport operational resilience is a fundamental component of BAC strategies and plans. These tabletop exercises are crucial for proactively testing the preparedness of all the parties involved as well as the effectiveness and practicality of our plans and procedures, identifying and mitigating risks, improvement opportunities, ensuring that we can respond effectively to any crisis or unforeseen disruption. Our commitment to business continuity underpins both passenger safety and the continuous operation of the airport. I would like to commend the dedication of our employees, partners, and government authorities whose contributions were instrumental to the success of these exercises. Our collaboration with Willis Towers Watson (wtw) strengthens our Business Continuity Management System (BCMS), aligning it with international best practices.”

The insights gained from these exercises will be instrumental in further refining BAC’s Business Continuity Management (BCM) program and ensuring its continued alignment with international standards.