Amadeus reports Saudi Arabian Airlines has successfully migrated to the next-generation Altéa Customer Management System (CMS) and core components of the Amadeus e-Commerce suite. One result is that, in one month, the airline has registered a significant increase in bookings with online sales now representing over 20 percent of total bookings, which shows a healthy growth on previous figures, Amadeus says. Altéa CMS replaces the Saudi Arabian Airlines’ legacy IT platform that has served the airline for the last 20 years.
“The new systems provide a completely new, fully integrated IT architecture to run our operations. We have already begun to reap the rewards of our investment with booking levels rising far more quickly than usual at this time of year” said Muhammad Albakri, vice president of IT for Saudi Arabian Airlines. “By adopting the state-of-the-art e-Commerce booking and servicing engine we are able to radically improve our web presence and drive increased international growth. Following these migrations we can now deliver on our commitment to transform the traveler experience. The unique features being introduced are to better serve our customers and ease the effort of preparing their travel.”
The migration marks a major milestone for Saudi Arabian Airlines. During cutover 3.2 million tickets, 1.3 million Passenger Name Records (PNRs) and 1.3 million frequent flyer profiles were moved to the new system. The Amadeus Reservation Desktop application was installed on over 3,000 PCs at over 500 office locations worldwide and over 3,800 employees were trained on the new applications and processes. In addition, a large scale integration program was undertaken to link Saudi Arabian Airline’s new systems to its other applications as well as to over 70 airline partners for e-Ticketing.
“The switch from legacy systems to a scalable and robust IT environment has laid the foundation for Saudi Arabian Airlines’ to modernize and support its growth both within the Middle East and internationally. In one of the most dynamic regions in the world, it is vital that airlines have a technology backbone that is flexible and agile enough to meet the demands of changing commercial strategies,” Julia Sattel, vice president of airline IT for Amadeus, said.
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