Products & solutions Success stories Written Success stories archive Thai Airways

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Thai Airways
Using existing technology to meet changing market demands
"As one of Asia's leading airlines we value the ability to deliver new and improved services quickly to both our
customers and staff. With SITA Integration Platform powered by Runway we have been able to use our existing
technology to meet changing market demands, and we continue to do this quickly and efficiently."
Captain Sopit Pokasoowan, formerly VP Information Technology Services - Thai Airways International
About THAI
Thai Airways International is one of the founding members of the Star Alliance, which now consists of 28 airlines. With 72
destinations and a further 81 code shares, THAI serves 37 countries and carried 19.6 million passengers in 2009. The
airline's frequent flyer programme - Royal Orchid Plus - is renowned as a leader in the industry and currently has over two
million active members.
Challenge
THAI highly values its customers and found that their needs were changing - and changing rapidly. Competitiveness in the
market was becoming more and more intense and low cost carriers were putting pressure on this full service airline. The
business managers identified the need to be responsive and set the challenge for the rollout of new services to be fast - the
age old mantra 'I need it yesterday' became a constant cry and the IT team had to deliver.
Not only was the airline facing the challenge to provide new services but it became apparent that these services needed to
be rolled out across a number of new customer contact channels. These included Internet, mobile phones and kiosks
because the pressure to reduce costs led to the requirement to introduce self-service facilities. These services included
enabling customers to book their flights online and to check themselves in using kiosks, allowing frequent flyers to redeem
their frequent flyer points against flight bookings and enabling staff to arrange their own staff travel.
And demands from customers were not the only ones that had to be met - as a leading member of the Star
Alliance, THAI had certain partnership responsibilities to fulfill. In addition, other partners including GDSs, code share
airlines, tour agents and banks all needed a greater level of connectivity and automated transfer of information.
All these new challenges - faster time to market, the implementation of new services, rollout of services across multiple
channels, partnership and alliance commitments - had to be met and the market satisfied but the key was this had to be
done in a cost efficient manner. Low cost carriers were gaining market share and their encroachment into THAI's customer
base needed to be stopped.
Approach
Such a transformation in the way they were going to do business was going to have major implications for THAI. Making all
these changes happen would put huge pressure on any airline's IT environment and THAI recognized that their approach
needed to be well thought out and strategic.
"Selecting and implementing SITA Integration Platform was a significant and valuable strategic decision for our airline.
It has delivered immediate results and benefits to our business and will continue to do so in the future."
Captain Sopit Pokasoowan, formerly VP Information Technology Services - Thai Airways International
The airline's IT experts recognized that going forward they needed to have the following:
The ability to leverage existing systems (without requiring any changes to these systems)
Open system Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
Cross-platform and heterogeneous application integration
Flexibility and agility
IT architecture that required a low level of maintenance and overhead
The ability to implement business requirements and services simply and quickly
Following an extensive review of suppliers, THAI chose SITA to help them implement their goals. SITA's passenger
management portfolio, Horizon, offers the scope and flexibility for airlines to transform their businesses. Specifically, SITA
Integration Platform provides a flexible, robust and efficient platform from which to launch new business services simply and
quickly.
With SITA Integration Platform, THAI was able to organize the structure of its technology so that it could implement an open
system Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) on top of its existing systems. This new architecture required a low level of
maintenance and overhead while having the ability to implement business requirements and services simply and quickly.
SITA Integration Platform gave the airline more flexibility - no longer did technology constrain the airline's ability to meet
business requirements and it also gave the ability to do things 'in-house'. This has resulted in faster turn around to meet
business requirements.
Results
THAI has deployed SITA Integration Platform for host integration and delivered the following business services.
Internet check-in
THAI passengers now have the ability to check-in for their flight over the Internet. This is a major convenience for passengers
but also saves the airline significant costs as the need for both staff and facilities at the airport are considerably reduced.
These self-service applications developed by THAI are part of the airline's strategy to empower the customer and reduce
distribution and customer servicing fees.
Self-service frequent flyer services
For Royal Orchid Plus, the airlines award winning frequent flyer programme, members have the ability to service their own
accounts 24x7 by doing any of the following over the Internet:
Check current mileage
Change PIN
Get a mileage statement
Process a hotel award redemption
Process an award nomination
Process a flight award redemption booking
Process a mileage upgrade award
Cargo services
Another area of the airline's business that benefited from the improved integration was cargo. Cargo flight schedules are
automatically made available online and THAI introduced etracking of cargo shipments for their customers.
Self-service staff management
Internally, THAI have been able to improve the services and information automatically available to staff. This includes
personnel information, an integrated resource management system that organizes staff schedules, tracking who is on duty,
on call, vacation or ill.
Tour operator services
For tour operators, new services have been supplied over the Internet, enabling online distribution to this channel and
reducing the cost of sales to this sector.
THAI has benefited from the ability to deliver services in response to business requirements in a fast and efficient manner,
delivering on projects up to 30% faster than before. Within the IT department reusability of functions is facilitated through the
pioneering use of SOA web services in the system architecture. This has led to a faster time to market and the ability to run
projects using smaller teams.
With SITA Integration Platform, THAI was able to organize the structure of its technology so that it could implement an open
system Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) on top of its existing systems.
The enterprise application integration architecture implemented using SITA Integration Platform has:
Kept THAI competitive - by quickly delivering and offering a multitude of services to customers as well as promoting
businesses among partners
Made the airline's older technology look 'state of the art' -- THAI's existing investment and resources of two man years
have been leveraged to meet both current and future needs of the market in a swift and cost efficient manner
Reduced the cost of implementing new services by 30%
Increased the lifespan of existing assets because existing mainframe applications could still be of value to the newer
applications as the main suppliers of data/processes allowing THAI to remain competitive in the market
Allowed THAI to replace legacy technology in the future without having to lose its investment in the new applications