MASholidays, a specialised travel and leisure arm owned and managed by Malaysia Airlines, has chosen IBS’s iFly solution to strengthen operations.

IFly Tour, a product under the iFly solution suite, will enable MASholidays, the division responsible for marketing and selling Malaysia Airlines holiday packages and tours, to increase the market reach of the products using an online booking system that is fully integrated with real-time inventory of flights, hotel rooms and other products.

The solution offers guests the flexibility of choosing tours and packages that best suit their needs and budget and settlement of accounts through an e-payment gateway. MASholidays, with an extensive network of tour agents and ground operators, has a tie-up with more than 130 hotels that have been carefully selected for their level of service, strategic location, cleanliness, comfort and facilities.

IFly Tour will provide a complete travel solution through a single point of sale. The system will also facilitate ancillary revenue for the airlines by packaging their air seats with hotels, transfers, car rental services, tours etc. The comprehensive nature of the product and its ease of operation are expected to significantly enhance customer satisfaction.

VK Mathews, chairman and CEO of IBS Group, said: “We are proud to be associated with Malaysia Airlines and a partner in this business transformation phase at MASholidays. IFly will give Malaysia Airlines and MASholidays a competitive edge by enabling them to offer customers a complete travel service by packaging air seats with non-air travel components.”

Asish Z Koshy, global business head of travel and cruise for IBS Group, said: “In the current economic context, ancillary revenue is an important source of income for the airlines. IFly will significantly enhance MASholidays’ capability to realise this income. It will also increase the global reach of MASholidays’ products by providing online booking capability for retail consumers and channel partners.”

Dato Rashid Khan, commercial director of Malaysia Airlines, said: “With this new online booking system, MASholidays will introduce the ‘unbundled’ packages and provide more flexibility in our offerings. Customers will be able to plan their holiday package to suit their needs and budget by looking at preferred hotels, tours, tailor-made convenience and matching it with other mode of transportation.

“The new solution will significantly improve the back-office administrations, enhance our booking process flow and upgrade our overall service to customers. We look forward to having this system in place together with IBS and it should be ready to go live by the second half of 2009.”

Yazid Mohamed, assistant general manager of MASholidays/MICE for Malaysia Airlines, said: “We will soon be online and there is nothing better than constantly upgrading and evolving business processes to accommodate the market trend. Having a tour management system will markedly improve our back-office, which ultimately will enhance our services and delivering true customer value proposition by being hassle-free from product research, booking and paying online, e-vouchering and e-ticketing.”

MASholidays, the specialised travel arm of Malaysia Airlines, has more than 30 years’ experience in arranging exciting and memorable holidays in Malaysia and around the world. The domestic Santai and international escapade products cover return air fare on Malaysia Airlines, hotel accommodation, daily breakfast, meet and greet at the airport and return airport transfers at destinations. For inbound trips into Malaysia, customers can enjoy great promotions by purchasing Malaysia stopover packages, inclusive of accommodation, breakfast and return airport transfers. All departures are guaranteed and packages can be tailor-made to suit all travel needs.