Maldivian, the national airline of the Maldives, has gone live with IBS’ new-generation passenger service system, aiRES, in the software as a service (SaaS) mode. The solution will help the airline manage its passenger reservations, inventory control, fares and ticketing, and departure control functions.
Maldivian has chosen IBS’ solution for its cost-effectiveness, optimum fit, short implementation time and flexible features that include web distribution, GDS, and credit card payment gateways. Through its open architecture, aiRES will enable Maldivian to broaden its customer service offering, by integrating it with its distribution channels.
Maldivian operates scheduled flights both to domestic destinations, as well as the regional destination, Trivandrum, India. In addition, Maldivian is looking to add Colombo, Sri Lanka, to its growing destinations in November 2008, in order to boost tourism to the island and more importantly, to provide greater convenience for locals travelling abroad.
aiRES provides the airline with the rich functionality and flexible and scalable architecture required to help address its growth needs, and the business agility to adapt to the requirements of a changing and competitive market.
The SaaS (hosted) version of the new-generation system allows Maldivian to utilize the complete functionality of the system to improve customer experience, in a very cost-effective manner, when required to pay on a transaction basis. This is especially significant at a time when rising costs, driven by fuel prices, are forcing airlines to look for effective ways to reduce operational costs in other areas.
According to Ahmed Zuhair, director commercial at Maldivian: “As the company is making every step in all directions to expand and enhance operations within the domestic and the regional sectors, it became absolutely necessary for the airline to invest in a reservation system that would not only fulfil all the requirements of the airlines reservations today, but also acquire a system that can grow with the airline and would actually facilitate to improve future service delivery efficiently.”
V K Mathews, chairman and CEO IBS Group, added: “Our vision at IBS has been to provide transformational business solutions for the air transportation industry and we have not been afraid to push the envelop of change, despite industry skepticism and misgivings. That we have succeeded in conceiving, developing and successfully delivering a completely integrated new-generation system to handle this complex business process, underscores our commitment to provide airlines with new-generation solutions that cater to all their business and operational needs.”
“We are delighted that Maldivian has chosen our passenger services system and joined the growing number of airlines looking to move away from the current legacy systems, and opt for new-generation technology to help remain competitive in dynamically evolving markets.”