8/12/2019 Thai Airways _ SITA

1/3

Products & solutions Success stor ies Written Success stor ies archive Thai Airways

Our website uses cookies. By continuing we assume your permission to deploy cookies, as detailed in our privacy and

cookies policy. X

Thai AirwaysUsing 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

ThaiAirways Internationalis one of the founding members of the Star Alliance, which now consists of 28 airlines. With 72

destinations and a further81 code shares , THAI serves 37 countries and carried 19.6 mil lion passengers in 2009. The

airline's frequent flyer programme - Royal Orchid Plus - is renowned as a leader in the indus try and currently has over two

million active members.

Challenge

THAIhighly values its customers and found that their needs were changing - and changing rapidly. Competitiveness in the

market was becoming m ore and more intense and low cost carriers were putting pressure on this full service airline. The

business managers identified the need to be respons ive 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 num ber 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 cus tomers to book their flights online and to check themselves in us ing kiosks, allowing frequent flyers to redeem

their frequent flyer points against flight bookings and enabling s taff to arrange their own s taff travel.

http://www.sita.aero/http://www.sita.aero/http://www.sita.aero/http://www.sita.aero/http://www.sita.aero/content/privacy-policy/http://www.sita.aero/content/privacy-policy/http://www.sita.aero/content/thai-airwayshttp://www.sita.aero/content/success-stories-archivehttp://www.sita.aero/products-solutions/sita-success-stories/writtenhttp://www.sita.aero/products-solutions/sita-success-storieshttp://www.sita.aero/products-solutionshttp://www.sita.aero/

8/12/2019 Thai Airways _ SITA

2/3

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 respons ibil ities 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 cos t efficient manner. Low cost carriers were gaining market share and their encroachment into THAI's cus tomer

base needed to be stopped.

Approach

Such a transformation in the way they were going to do business was going to have major im plications 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 Internationa

The airline's IT experts recognized that going forward they needed to have the following:

The ability to leverage existing s ystems (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 pas senger

management portfolio, Horizon, offers the scope and flexibility for airlines to transform their bus inesses . Specifically, SITA

Integration Platform provides a flexible, robust and efficient platform from which to launch new business services s imply 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 s imply 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 bus iness services.

Internet check-in

THAI pass engers 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 signi ficant costs as the need for both staff and facilities at the airport are considerably reduced.

These s elf-service applications developed by THAI are part of the airline's s trategy to empower the customer and reduce

distribution and customer servicing fees.

8/12/2019 Thai Airways _ SITA

3/3

Self-service frequent flyer services

For Royal Orchid Plus, the airlines award winning frequent flyer programm e, mem bers have the abili ty to service their own

accounts 24x7 by doing any of the following over the Internet:

Check current mi leage

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 busines s 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 includespersonnel information, an integrated resource management system that organizes s taff schedules , tracking who is on duty,

on call, vacation or ill.

Tour operator services

For tour operators, new services have been s upplied 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 bus iness 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 us e of SOA web services in the system architecture. This has led to a faster time to market and the ability to run

projects using sm aller 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 implem enting new services by 30%

Increased the lifespan of existing assets because existing mainframe applications could s till 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