Airline Automation, Inc., a Tucson, Ariz. based application service provider for the airline and travel industry, has introduced a new customer relationship management designed to help airlines better facilitate their direct marketing strategies.
PNR+Plus, the first CRM product from AAI, helps airlines organize their customer and business data and target their marketing programs. With PNR+Plus, airlines can access their customer database beyond the frequent flyer program for direct & relationship marketing.
“PNR+Plus is the future today in airline marketing,” said Scott Kimbriel, AAI`s CEO. “It`s always amazed me that when, for example, a customer looks a first-class ticket from say LAX to London and doesn`t bother to enroll in the airline`s frequent flyer program—most airlines do not capture the customer information for remarketing. Now they can.”
AAI will capture PNR data, conduct address correction and other data processes, and build a customer/transaction data mart for its clients. AAI can initiate the database from millions of PNRs created from its Flight Firming process for its more than 30 airline clients. AAI believes PNR+Plus will help airlines improved targeting and customer communications and grow customer loyalty and retention.
“We will help our clients use the data to faciliate CRM and better identify who best ciutomers are and cultivate relationships,” said AAI Vice President of Sales and Marketing Kelly McCullogh.
McCullough, a CRM veteran from the public television industry, recenlty joined AAI to help bring PNR+Plus to market. “I’ve been doing CRM before it was called CRM,” he said.
In the past few months the 17-year old company has surged, gaining new airline customers and developing new products like PNR+Plus.
In November, Frontier Airlines began using AAI`s automated flight firming application on all of its flights systemwide. During the test period Frontier was able to test the application on a select group of markets and ensure that the ticketing time limit rules were being applied correctly, as well as devise several custom processes to address the carrier`s particular needs for special users.
The automated flight firming process will review all reservations coming in to the Frontier system and assign unticketed bookings with the appropriate ticketing time limit request. These requests will then be sent back to the booking agency with a deadline by which the ticket must be issued. The process will then review the booking after the expiration of the deadline and determine whether a valid ticket has been issued, and cancel unticketed bookings.
In October, America West Airlines entered into a three-year contract for AAI`s automated flight firming service. With AAI`s automated flight firming application, America West the ability to enforce ticketing time limit rules on bookings made through the Global Distribution System (GDS) or other airline reservation systems. Enforcement of ticketing time limits increases the number of ticketed reservations, dramatically reducing the variability of no-show levels and increasing the onboard load factor on sold out flights.
Other AAI customers include Aerolineas Argentinas, Alaska Airlines, American, Continental, Japan Airlines, National Airlines, Quantas, Southwest, and Marriott Hotels & Resorts.
Airline Automation, Inc. provides airlines and travel-related companies
technology-based solutions including reservations processing, flight firming, e-ticket confirmation, flight schedule automation systems, frequent flyer systems, GDS data mining, hotel GDS rate loading and customer relationship management systems.
AAI`s computer facility in Tucson is online with Sabre, Apollo, Worldspan, and Amadeus, as well as a private Sprint Frame Relay Intranet (T1 Host) which connects AAI to its customers. Additional multiple T1`s connect AAI to the Internet.
AAI is building a new office that will feature a 7,000-sq. ft. computer room and will allow the company to triple its current capacity and move into the data warehouse business.
——-