Airlines put brakes on IT spend: Survey

Mumbai: Airlines are cutting down on their IT spend by 1.7% this year, predicts a survey by SITA, a global communication and IT solutions provider. The silverline to this cost-cutting exercise however is that the airlines will offer more online options to passengers to maximize their distribution channel.
In the survey which polled 116 airlines, 72% said they would renegotiate their IT supplier contracts and 70% opined that they would invest in solutions that would lower overall enterprise costs. SITA chairman & British Airways chief information officer Paul Coby said, "There will be a year-on-year decline in IT spend. The focus is on doing even more with even less. So, it is no surprise that reductions in investment are cited by survey respondents as the main obstacle to airline CIOs achieving their strategy."
But this development will still benefit the consumers as airlines are looking at maximising their costs by making optimum utilisation of the most preferred distribution channel now -web. "Most airlines want to introduce change/cancel/rebook facilities on their portal by 2010," says the survey.
Even airlines like Air India and Jet Airways said that they are working towards this. In spite of the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines, two sets of tickets with code AI (Air India) and IC (Indian) are issued.
07/07/09 Naveeta Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Jul 2009