Trivandrum, 22 Sep 2008: Maldivian, the national airline of Maldives, has gone live with IBS’new-generation Passenger Service System, aiRES in the Software as a Service (SaaS) mode. Thesolution will help the airline manage its passenger reservations, inventory control, fares &ticketing, and departure control functions.
Maldivian has chosen IBS’ solution for its cost-effectiveness, optimum fit, short implementationtime and flexible features that include Web Distribution, GDS, and Credit Card paymentgateways. Through its open architecture, aiRES will enable Maldivian to broaden its customerservice offering by integrating it with its distribution channels.
Maldivian operates scheduled flights both to domestic destinations as well as to the regionaldestination, Trivandrum in India and is looking to add more such destinations such as Colombo,Sri Lanka in November 2008 to boost tourism to the island nation and more importantly toprovide greater convenience for the locals traveling abroad. aiRES provides the airline the richfunctionality and the flexible and scalable architecture required to help address its growth needsand the business agility to adapt to the requirements of a changing and competitive market. TheSaaS (hosted) version of the new-generation system allows Maldivian to utilize the completefunctionality of the system to improve customer experience, in a very cost-effective manner,being required to pay on a transaction basis. This is especially significant at a time when risingcosts driven by fuel prices, are driving airlines to look for effective ways to reduce operationalcosts in other areas.
According to Ahmed Zuhair, Director Commercial at Maldivian; “as the company is makingevery step in all directions to expand and enhance operations within the domestic and theregional sectors, it became absolutely necessary for the airline to invest in a reservation systemthat would not only full fill all the requirements of the airlines reservations today but also acquirea system that can grow with the airline and would actually facilitate to improve future servicedelivery efficiently”.
According to V K Mathews, Chairman & CEO IBS Group, “Our vision at IBS, has been toprovide transformational business solutions for the air transportation industry and we have notbeen afraid to push the envelop of change, despite industry skepticism and misgivings. That wehave succeeded in conceiving, developing and successfully delivering a completely integratednew-generation system to handle this complex business process underscores our commitment toprovide airlines with new-generation solutions that cater to all their business and operationalneeds. We are delighted that Maldivian has chosen our Passenger Services System and joined thegrowing number of airlines looking to move away from the current legacy systems and opt fornew-generation technology to help remain competitive in dynamically evolving markets.”
About aiRES
aiRES is an integrated, multi-hosting system that addresses passenger reservations, inventorycontrol, fares & ticketing, and departure control functions of commercial airlines. The functionalcoverage and packaging of the product is such that it supports the needs of all airlines, fromsophisticated full service carriers to low cost operators. aiRES is designed to help airlines improveeconomies, enhance service quality, and improve revenues and profitability whilst actuallyreducing the cost of ownership of the system.
The object oriented, component architecture of aiRES makes it scalable and easily customizableto suit the diverse business needs of airlines. Technologically, aiRES marks the beginning of anew era of opportunities for airlines' passenger services business that will help them migratefrom the decades old legacy paradigm. With its multi-hosting capability, aiRES also becomes anattractive option for hosting service providers.
About Maldivian
Maldivian; owned and operated by Island Aviation Service Ltd is the main domestic carrier in theMaldives, catering for the demand of the domestic travelers since April 2000 and in January2008, made the first leap towards regional operations by commencing daily flights to Trivandrum,India and today operates twice daily to the destination.Beginning operations with only 1 Dornier-228 (16 seats) and 1 Dash8-200 (37 seats) aircraft in2000, the airline has been expanding its operations domestically as well as regionally byintroducing additional frequencies to the four domestic and regional destinations. In addition theairline is gearing up to commence operations to Colombo, Sri Lanka on 6th November 2008 adding one more regional destination to the companies list.Since the operations began in 2000, Maldivian has been busy acquiring aircrafts yearly in order tocater for the demands of the domestic market as well as for its regional operations. The fleettoday consists of 1 Dornier-228 (16 seats), 2 Dash8-200 (37 seats), and 2 Dash8-300 (50 seats)aircrafts.
