On the eve of major network expansion, Indonesia’s third largest private carrier, Sriwijaya Air, today announced the completion of a successful migration to SITA’s Horizon passenger management and distribution platform.

The smooth transition took place with no disruption for the airline’s six million passengers and Sriwijaya Air becomes the second major Asian airline - after Malaysia Airlines - to switch to the SITA platform within the last two months.

 

As part of the five-year, $9.5 million contract the airline is implementing several Horizon services including SITA Reservations, Inventory and Distribution as well as SITA Ticketing, Departure Control Services and Passenger Revenue Accounting to support its 20% growth rate in passenger numbers.

 

Capt. Harwick Lahunduitan, Vice President Director, Sriwijaya Air, said: “The migration to Horizon was executed flawlessly. This is a huge undertaking for any airline and we are happy to say that there was no disruption to our passengers.

 

“Now we have moved to Horizon we can focus on maximising the benefits from the other SITA services we are using, most notably, our costs can now be better managed as we grow both domestically and internationally.”

 

SITA’s Horizon passenger management services enable Sriwijaya to comply with international air travel standards including interlining with major carriers, supporting 100% e-ticketing and enabling the use of bar coded boarding passes. In addition, SITA Departure Control Services allows the airline to use common use check-in equipment at the various airports in their system simplifying expansion to new destinations.

 

Damian Hickey, SITA Regional Vice President, South Asia and India, said: “The Sriwijaya Air and SITA teams worked together to ensure that the migration was as smooth as possible and the effort paid off.  It was a great achievement that no disruption was felt by passengers.

 

“We are now working closely to ensure that the new level of automation being introduced at the airline by SITA will reduce human errors and increase monitoring throughout the revenue cycle. In this way, Sriwijaya can continue to expand with confidence that controls are being maintained.”

 

In 2009, Sriwijaya Air expects to carry more than six million passengers to a total of 33 domestic and international destinations and in 2010, it hopes to add new aircraft to launch services to Bangkok, Guangzhou, Kuala Lumpur and Perth.