• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

AI plans online travel bookings

Ashwini Phadnis

MUMBAI, July 16

AIR India plans to allow passengers to make travel bookings on the Internet soon. Senior officials of the Systems Support Department of the airline told Business Line that the plan was to allow such booking to be made by all passengers flying the airline in a phased manner.

``In the initial stages only those passengers who have registered as members of the `Joint frequent flier' programme of Indian Airlines and AI may be allowed. However, nothing has been finalised and several issues still need to be looked at,'' said Mr. A .N. Hari Narayan, Senior Manager, System Support.

Senior officials of the division said that certain ``resource things'' including human resource development and financial issues needed to be looked into before the booking engine could be launched. ``One of the problems relates to the fare to be shown o n the net. We are a member of International Air Transport Association (IATA) and we cannot officially quote fares which are lower than what is being charged,'' officials said.

Further, the airline is to make all its offices in country paperless soon by connecting them through an intranet network. Officials said the offices in Mumbai had already been connected by intranet and this was being extended in a phased manner to cover the entire country. While in phase one, the offices in Mumbai were connected, in the next phase Delhi and Chennai would be taken up, officials said.

``Any job which is of non-financial nature is now being done through the intra-network. This will eventually help the airline cut down on the secretarial staff, papers which have to be stored and number of trips the staff have to make,'' said AI's Managi ng Director, Mr. M.P. Mascarenhas.

Meanwhile, to maximise its revenues the airline has created the automated ticket online time limit system which deletes the passenger reservations unless it has been reconfirmed.

``The system deletes a passengers reservation request after a particular period of time unless it has been reconfirmed. The amount of time for which the booking will be held depends on the route on which the booking has been made. This system will allow us to monitor our loads and revenue generation in a better manner,'' officials said.

Apart from the IT systems department, the engine overhaul department is also making attempts to generate more outside business. The department recently received certification from the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority which, along with the US Feder al Aviation Authority (FAA) authorisation, will now allow it to scout for engine job works in different parts of the world.

``We were finding it difficult to penetrate the international market till a short while ago. But when we executed a contract for a US company, with whom we have now signed a five-year contract, things have changed,'' officials said.

The department was a big money spinner for the airline as almost 60 per cent of every $100 spent on a aircraft parts were spent on work done here, officials said.