RwandAir Partners with SITA to Provide Air Transport IT Solutions

KIGALI February 16, 2011... RwandAir and SITA have entered into various agreements that will allow the national carrier acquire some key travel solutions, which will improve its service offering through better distribution and customer retention. These solutions include the SITA e-commerce platform which will allow for e-ticket distribution on the RwandAir website with credit card payment facility.  The system, which is in advanced stages of implementation, is expected to go live April 2010. The airline will also be getting the Horizon FrequentFlyer system as part of its customer relationship management.

“We want to make it convenient for customers to access our services by taking advantage of the reach of the Internet and emerging e-commerce applications. The SITA e-commerce platform will not only provide a new booking option for customers already familiar with our airline and its services, but also help us reach more international travellers around the world.” said RwandAir’s Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications Michael Otieno.  “The prospect of having the miles based reward program from SITA will not only help us recognize and reward our frequent flyers but we will also be better placed to learn more about them and their travel needs”, he added.

Late last year, the airline partnered with local mobile telephone companies in Rwanda and Burundi to provide flight schedule services on SMS. The airline plans to make mobile ticket sales and check in a possibility for its customers and is currently putting up an in house call center facility to help it manage better-inbound and outbound calls.

From its foundation as Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques, SITA has aimed to bring together airlines' existing air transport communications facilities. This allows organizations and the wider industry to take advantage of shared-infrastructure cost efficiencies. The company has up to eight airlines in Africa using its e-commerce and frequent flyer applications while most airports on the continent handle passengers using other SITA applications.

RwandAir serves most East African community capital cities with daily flights and it flies to Johannesburg and Dubai three times a week. The airline currently has a fleet of two Boeing 737-500, two Bombardier CRJ and a Dash 8 with two Boeing 737-800 joining the fleet in 2011. The carrier is aggressively growing its fleet to cater for its network expansion plans that will see it fly to more regional destinations including Brazzaville which will be operated three times a week on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.