Qatar Airways and Qatari telecom company Qtel have completed migration of the airline operator’s IT infrastructure to a Qtel data center, three years after the two companies struck an IT outsourcing deal.

Qtel will provide a range of enterprise services to Qatar Airways, supported by its data center in Qatar’s capital Doha, the companies said on 30 March.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said outsourcing services to Qtel would ensure the airline had a foundation to support further growth. “With Qtel’s support, we have successfully migrated our primary IT infrastructure to this new facility and can reap the full benefits of enhanced capacity and improved reliability,” he said.

The two firms first announced their 15-year agreement in February 2008. Under the agreement, the Qtel data center would support Qatar Airways’ flight data, finance, human resources and internet bookings. The companies said then that operations would be managed by the airline’s own IT department.

Migration of equipment from the airline’s headquarters to the Doha data center marks completion of the first phase of the agreement. The second phase will be migration of the client’s disaster-recovery infrastructure to a Qtel data center built specifically for Qatar Airways.