Company Background
AirAsia is one of the award winning and largest low fare airlines in the Asia expanding rapidly since 2001. With a fleet of 72 aircrafts, AirAsia flies to over 61 domestic and international destinations with 108 routes, and operates over 400 flights daily from hubs located in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Today, AirAsia has flown over 55 million guests across the region and continues to create more extensive route network through its associate companies. AirAsia believes in the no-frills, hassle-free, low fare business concept and feels that keeping costs low requires high efficiency in every part of the business. Through the corporate philosophy of “Now Everyone Can Fly”, AirAsia has sparked a revolution in air travel with more and more people around the region choosing AirAsia as their preferred choice of transport.
AirAsia was established in 1993 and commenced operations on 18 November 1996. It was originally founded by a government-owned conglomerate DRB-Hicom. On 2 December 2001, the heavily-indebted airline was purchased by former Time Warner executive Tony Fernandes's company Tune Air Sdn Bhd for the token sum of one ringgit. This was after great deliberation as the initial offer was fifty cent. In 2003, AirAsia opened a second hub at Senai International Airport in Johor Bahru near Singapore and launched its first international flight to Bangkok. AirAsia has since started a Thai subsidiary, added Singapore itself to the destination list, and commenced flights toIndonesia. On August 2006, AirAsia took over Malaysia Airlines's Rural Air Service routes in Sabah and Sarawak, operating under the FlyAsian Xpressbrand, the routes were subsequently returned back to MASwings a year later citing commercial reasons. AirAsia's CEO Tony Fernandes subsequently unveiled a five-year plan to further enhance its presence in Asia. In the plan, AirAsia will strengthen and enhance its route network by connecting all the existing cities in the region and expanding further into Indochina, Indonesia, Southern China (Kun Ming, Xiamen, Shenzen) and India. The airline will focus on developing its hubs in Bangkok and Jakarta through its sister companies, Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia. Hence, with increase frequency and addition of new routes, AirAsia expects passenger volume to hit 18 million by end-2007.
On 27 September 2008, has on its list 106 new routes to be added to its current list of 60 over the next few years. The number of old routes discontinued has not been publicly disclosed. AirAsia operates with the world’s lowest unit cost of US$0.023/ASK and a passenger break-even load factor of 52%. It has hedged 100% of its fuel requirements for the next three years, achieves an aircraft turnaround time of 25 minutes, has a crew productivity level that is triple that of Malaysia Airlines and achieves an average aircraft utilisation rate of 13 hours a day. All scheduled AirAsia departures out of Kuala Lumpur International Airport are operated via the Low Cost Carrier Terminal. AirAsia abolished fuel surcharges on November 2008.
The use of information technology plays an important role in the strategic and operation management of airlines, and facilitates the successful airlines in the future. AirAsia is the award winning low cost carriers (LCC) in the Pacific Region, which this company used current implementation of information technology, and the recommended future implementation of technology in customer relationship management (CRM), analyzing the current business environment, competitive advantages, value chain, and profitability effectively in future.
AirAsia creates values through the following vision and mission; to be the largest low cost airline in Asia and serving the 3 billion people who are currently underserved with poor connectivity and high fares. Their mission is to be the best company to work for whereby employees are treated as part of big family, create a globally recognized ASEAN brand, to attain the lowest cost so that everyone can fly with AirAsia and maintain the highest quality product, embracing technology to reduce cost and enhances service levels.
AirAsia makes the low fare model possible and create values through the implementation of the following key strategies; which is their most key is safety first (partnering with the world’s most renowned maintenance providers and complying with the world airline operations. Second is high aircraft utilization, which is implementing the regions fastest turnaround time at only 25 minutes, assuring lower costs and higher productivity. AirAsia also providing guests with the choice of customizing without compromising on quality and services, making sure that the processes are as simple as possible on streamline operations, offering a wide and innovative range of distribution channels to make booking and travelling easier and applying the point to point network keeps operation simple and lower costs.
There are several steps when booking an online ticket via internet such as;
INPUT
BUSINESS PROCESS AND OPERATION
AirAsia has fostered a dependency on Internet technology for its operational and strategic management and provides an online ticket booking services to traveler online. To book an online ticket and flight with AirAsia, customer can choose either the following step channels or simply visit the AirAsia homepage and follow the five steps.
1. Call centre
2. Sales office and airport sales counter
3. Authorized travel agents
4. Mobile booking via mobile airasia.com or
5. Online (http;//www.airasia.com)
Sales Office
Online Booking
Mobile Booking
Sales Office
Online Booking Mobile Booking There are several steps when booking an online ticket via internet such as;
INPUT
Step 1
Choosing and searching a trip type, departing and arriving cities, departure and return date.
Step 2
Selecting a departing flight with the chosen time and fare from the available list to show the summary of the flight and cost breakdown.
Step 3
Login with Airasia member account
OUTPUT
Step 4
Verifying the total cost of flight, selecting one of the payment method etc: credit card.
Step 5
Flight itinerary will appear in the screen. Customer can claim the ticket later.
The first step is search. Online customers choosing their type, select the departing and arriving cities, departure and return date, and select number of guests and infants and start searching the available flights. The second step is selecting a departing flight with the chosen fare and time from the available list to show the summary information of the flight and cost breakdown. Next, login with AirAsia member account and enter the guest information and contact person details. After that the name of the guest will be displayed, and verify the total price of the flight, and select one of the payment methods such as credit cared, direct debit, and e-gift voucher. Once the payment has been processed, your flight itinerary will be displayed on the screen and send to customer’s email.
In management information system, there are three activities produce information organization needs, such as input (captures raw data from organization or external environment), processing (convert raw data into meaningful form) and output (transfers processed information to people or activities that use it). In this situation, step one and step two is an input, where customer try to search a random information about the online booking ticket. Step five is an output where customer can claim their ticket after payment is made.
Computer Reservation System (CRS)
Computer Reservation System (CRS) integrated web-enabled reservation and inventory system suite powered by Navitaire’s Open Skies technology that includes Internet, call center, and airport departure control functionality. It satisfy the unique needs of AirAsia implementing a low-cost business model to transform the business process to efficiently streamline operations.
Yield Management System (YMS)
It is also known as Revenue Management System; it understands, anticipates
and reacts to the behavior of customer to maximize revenue for the organization.
This takes into account the operating costs and aids AirAsia to optimize prices and allocate capacity to maximize expected revenues. The optimization is done on two levels in AirAsia:
• Seat (Every seat is considered an opportunity to maximize revenue. Seats
are available at various prices in different points of time. A reservation
done at a later date will be charged more than the one done earlier – for
the same seat)
• Route (By adjusting prices for routes/destinations that have a higher
demand when compared to others). The effective method however is to
combine these two levels for all flights, all routes so that both the seat and
the route are effectively priced for all the flights.
AirAsia has realized increased revenue (3-4%) for the same number of aircrafts
by taking advantage of the forecast of the high/low demand patterns, effectively
shifting the demand from low period to high period and by charging a premium
for late bookings. Over the past couple of years, AirAsia have actually lowered
prices (essential for LCC) as the YMS has given them the window to increase
their revenue by offering higher discounts, more frequently during off-peak times
while raising prices only marginally for peak times.
ORGANIZATION INFORMATION SYSTEMS ON AIRASIA
As we reckon AirAsia is among the biggest airways in our country. Besides being famous, this is one airline that offers customer most reasonable ticket pricing. Airasia does it offers and discount for flight tickets frequently and it does have attracted a lot of consumer and in times they are tickets discounts up to a price that sometimes we as a purchaser can’t believe in their eyes.
Therefore, here we go to elaborate a little more on how does AirAsia management staff keeps its proficiency in doing their works that meet their customers needs and satisfactions. AirAsia is a ticketless airline which means it does not require a ticket to board on a plane. All customers need is their identification card and they will check customer’s reservations that they made earlier through telephone services, online booking ticket and the latest is thru AirAsia’s GPRS – it is based ticketing systems.
These new and improve service of Airasia is the only one of its kind in the world. It’s easy and will save customer’s time. All they have to do is just follow the eight steps that appear thru one’s handphone. This service requires customers to installed GPRS service system in their phone.
Call Center Information
Malaysia call centre
Within Malaysia : | 1 300 88 99 33 |
Outside Malaysia : | +603 7884 9000 |
Other AirAsia Call Centre
Within Thailand : | 0 2515 9999 |
Location : | Bangkok, Thailand |
Within Indonesia : | 0804 1 3333333 |
Location : | Jakarta, Indonesia |
Within Singapore : | 6733 9933 |
Location : | Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia |
Within Macau : | 852 3167 2299 |
Based In : | Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia |
Within China, Xiamen : | 86 592 516 7777 |
Based In : | Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia |
AirAsia Call Centre Customer Service Team is trained to quickly access the current seat availabilities and fare information. There management continuously monitors call waiting time and phone conversations to ensure superior sales techniques are in compliance with company policy.
TECHNOLOGY FEATURES
In order to gain market share and sustain its competitive advantages to be the low cost carrier in the high demanding environment, AirAsia must develop new ways to manage both customer relationships and suppliers or partners to optimize customer loyalty, supplier relationships, and revenue. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application will be one of the area of strategic IT implementation that AirAsia can focus to achieve high values to both shareholders and customers.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) In long term, customer relationships should be fostered for AirAsia to maintain competitive advantage and profitability. When planning and implementing CRM application, management is recommended the following approaches the customer segmentation – mileage-based segmentation is inadequate, rather should focused on value-based and needs-based approaches can guide investment decisions and drive greater insight into the needs of high value customers. CRM initiative development – to differentiate from other competitors, AirAsia should not adopt the “fast follower” approach to CRM initiative development, i.e. learning from other competitors’ approach (e.g. installing kiosks for fast check-in). AirAsia should implement CRM program in favor of investing in initiatives with a high return, which respond to the needs and desires of their own customers. Organizational design and management – AirAsia needs to train the employees, empowering them with a complete view of the customer and clearly articulating the employee’s role in the CRM strategy.
BUSINESS MODEL
Productive and skillful employees and simple, aggressive and focused management.
Work with flexible software developer to build management information system that is flexible and does not overload with unnecessary information
The management information system focus on services,customer,operating cost, marketing opportunities and the company’s exposure to risk.
MANAGEMENT FEATURE
Computer Reservation System (CRS)
Computer Reservation System (CRS) integrated web-enabled reservation and inventory system suite powered by Navitaire’s Open Skies technology that includes Internet, call center, and airport departure control functionality. It satisfy the unique needs of AirAsia implementing a low-cost business model to transform the business process to efficiently streamline operations.
Yield Management System (YMS)
It is also known as Revenue Management System; it understands, anticipates
and reacts to the behavior of customer to maximize revenue for the organization.
This takes into account the operating costs and aids AirAsia to optimize prices and allocate capacity to maximize expected revenues. The optimization is done on two levels in AirAsia:
• Seat (Every seat is considered an opportunity to maximize revenue. Seats
are available at various prices in different points of time. A reservation
done at a later date will be charged more than the one done earlier – for
the same seat)
• Route (By adjusting prices for routes/destinations that have a higher
demand when compared to others). The effective method however is to
combine these two levels for all flights, all routes so that both the seat and
the route are effectively priced for all the flights.
AirAsia has realized increased revenue (3-4%) for the same number of aircrafts
by taking advantage of the forecast of the high/low demand patterns, effectively
shifting the demand from low period to high period and by charging a premium
for late bookings. Over the past couple of years, AirAsia have actually lowered
prices (essential for LCC) as the YMS has given them the window to increase
their revenue by offering higher discounts, more frequently during off-peak times
while raising prices only marginally for peak times.
IMPORTANT OF MIS
Support business processes
Support decision making
Support competitive advantages
