Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Lufthansa Systems announced today that the carrier will be using Lufthansa Systems’ managed WAN solution, SkyConnect, for secure and cost-efficient data exchange for MAS’ 80 international stations, including the crucial SITA PSS connectivity at Atlanta.
The deal is part of the ongoing Malaysia Airlines’ Strategic IT Outsourcing (SITO) program to stabilize, rationalize and transform the IT operations delivery in the airline. With SkyConnect, Malaysia Airlines will benefit from a state-of-the-art solution that combines the flexibility of regional networks with the ease of a single point of contact for the customer.
SkyConnect will integrate Malaysia Airlines’ commercial applications such as reservations, check-in and aircraft handling and will be ready for new functionalities such as voice-over-IP telephony in the future.
"We need reliability in our global data exchange for stable and profitable flight operations," said Ms Faridah Abdul Rahman, CIO of Malaysia Airlines. "SkyConnect is a reliable, secure and cost-efficient system and will take our global communication into the 21st century."
Combining high availability with exceptionally large data capacity, SkyConnect is a global multi-provider network which airlines and other international companies can use to transfer data quickly and securely. The multi-provider network is composed of the best available subnetworks of various regions and local providers.
Commenting on the cooperation, Faridah said, "We were seeking a strategic partner to enable Malaysia Airlines to achieve business objectives that offer an innovative value proposition, wherein Malaysia Airlines would get consistently improved services, at a reduced cost with greater transparency and higher flexibility."
"Besides cutting-edge products, a global presence and close contacts to our customers are priorities of Lufthansa Systems. Over the last years we have established a solid cooperation with Malaysia Airlines. The decision in favor of SkyConnect is a sign of great trust. This again underlines our strong position in the Asia-Pacific market," commented Olivier Krüger, SVP Regional Management Asia Pacific at Lufthansa Systems.