Design and Implementation of an Online System for Domestic Flight Customer Information Management System
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The objective of the research project work is to build an online system for domestic flight customer information management system. The system developed will have the following as its objectives.
- Create an online system for customers to view all domestic flights operators in Nigeria.
- Create an online system for customers to view domestic flight schedule and their flight rate.
- Give online access to passenger’s suggestions or complaint on flight operations.
- Showcase flight maintenance information to customers
- Give passengers access to send their complaint about flight operations or services.
- Creates online news publication for flight operators accessible to customers.
- Makes available the number of flights operated by an airline.
- Maintain a robust database for flight information management
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Industry Profile
Airline industry is essential to global world as without airline transportation, such industries as leisure and tourism would suffer and international business activities would become much harder to conduct (Tiernan et al., 2008). It is one of the biggest industries in the world, reaching turnover of 501.2$ billion (Datamonitor, 2011) and 18$ billion in profits as of 2010 (IATA, 2011) and hence providing significant amount of work places as well as taxation revenues to governments. The industry is expected to grow up to 713.6$ billion within next few years. The market is divided between domestic (64% of all flights) and international (36%) (Datamonitor, 2011). Americas account for 44.4% of all flights and Europe accounts for 33.1%. The worldwide demand for air transportation has been relatively stable, though such events as September 11 terrorist attacks in New York in 2001, SARS pandemics in Asia in 2002/2003 and current financial crisis etc. have had temporary impact on it, causing fear in using air transportation or avoiding certain geographical locations. Seasonality is also common, as the demand for leisure flights increase heavily during holiday seasons (such as Christmas or summer). In addition, demand fluctuates depending on the time of the day and day of the week (Tiernan et al. 2008). Nevertheless, the industry has been continuously operating on extremely thin margins (IATA, 2011; Tiernan et al., 2008) with high operational costs (Airline Trends and Ancillary Revenue Report, 2010). Thus, the volume is crucial for the industry to stay profitable and thus the differences in prices for one flight can be large. Furthermore, the actual product of the airline industry (airline seat) is extremely perishable. Once the aircraft took off, the opportunity to sell a seat is lost.
Currently two major issues affect profitability of airlines (Kostama & Toivonen, 2012): firstly, whereas demand has been stable for last decade, terrorism threat and financial crisis slowed down the industry growth (11.9% industry growth in 2010 and 7.8% in 2011 (Datamonitor, 2011)). The expected recovery is slow, with growth projected to reach only 7.4% in 2015 (Datamonitor, 2011). Second, deregulation of European airline industry in 1990s allowed lowcost carriers (LLCs) to enter the market with new, revolutionary business model, thus driving the customers away from regular full-service airlines. Deregulation as well enabled introduction of new services and more competition within the industry, as well as gave customers more power over their flight experience. In 2009, LLCs accounted for 32% of total seats in Europe. In addition to appearance of LLCs, airline industry experienced major makeovers during the last few years, such as elimination of paper tickets, introduction of self-service check-in kiosks etc. (IATA, 2011). Another challenge the airline industry is facing is a competition coming from other modes of transportation (Tiernan et al., 2008/1), such as high-speed trains. Thus, some routes, e.g. Paris-Brussels, have become unfeasible to carriers. Nevertheless, current economic crises highlighted the industry’s strength as it survived the crises without major support by governments (Airline Trends and Ancillary Revenue Report, 2010). It is due to the airlines’ ability to react to low demand environment fast as well as willingness to challenge old business models and implement new ones. However, the industry as a whole failed to manage fuel costs and customer expectations effectively. Due to challenges in oil industry, fuel price fluctuations and growth will be continuous source of problems and further reduce already thin margins. Thus, whereas fuel prices are out of control for the carriers, services and customer management are something airlines can improve and develop.
Airline Classification
Airlines can be divided into two groups based on their core activity: passenger airlines and freight airlines (Airline Business Models, 2008). According to Jones & Sasser (1995), there are two differentiation strategies: price differentiation and services differentiation. Full network carriers (FNCs) are airlines that execute full service differentiation strategy, emphasizing hub and spoke networks, primary airports, and frequent flyer programs. Full network carriers often belong to a strategic alliance such as Star Alliance (Tiernan et al., 2008) to expand their network and increase a number of customers. Full network carriers represent a traditional model of airline business, they also have broadest scope of operations, targeting both leisure and business customers as well as serving long and short haul routes. Low cost carriers (LCCs) are competing based on price and use secondary, smaller airports, providing minimum services and maximizing seating capacity of the aircraft, among other methods. Nevertheless, on short haul routes FNCs successfully compete with LCCs based on cost as well (Tiernan et al., 2008).
Thus, low cost airlines differentiate by offering very low prices with minimal services (which often require extra payment), and full network carriers differentiate based on their wide range of services. Within full network carriers, further differentiation can be based on travel classes a carrier is offering (each travel class differs on services and flexibility it offers). Airlines such as Finnair and Lufthansa offer business and economy classes only (on some flights only economy).
Other carriers such as Emirates and Qatar offer first, business and economy classes with a number of additional services such as on-board spa, shower facilities, bar etc. on long-haul flights, and they can be called ‘luxury carriers’. Such airlines are still classified as FNCs, but from the service offering perspective, they should be discussed differently. Luxury airlines are rarely members of any strategic alliance, though tactical alliances are more common. However, it is worth mentioning that most of the airlines offer different services based on the length of the flight: e.g. flights within European Union usually have limited services, as the flight length is not more than 4 hours. However, on the long-haul flights carriers use bigger aircraft with more services, better seats, food service and entertainment systems.
A focused strategy business model in airline industry ceased to exist during the current financial crisis (Examiner.com, 2009) due to increasing competition and high operating cost. Airlines applying such business model were called boutique carriers (Fiorino, 2006). Boutique carriers were concentrating on few (one to three) long haul routes and offered all-business seating configuration and upscale service offerings (Tiernan et al., 2008/1), providing business travelers with more service oriented alternative to FNCs.
The volatile industry makes it challenging for the carriers to find a balance between providing high class services for customers while keeping the costs low. Different business models have been tried out, with LCCs trying to phase out most services completely, leaving only the basic ones. Nevertheless, the services remain as a cornerstone of air transportation, and profitability of an airline depends on what kind of services it has to and how well they are deliver them to keep its customers satisfied.
Strategic Alliances
The expansion of the services and customer benefits in air transportation happened with the development of airline alliances. Nowadays several global airline alliances currently exist. First airline alliance emerged in late 1980s, and more alliances came to existence after that. Their size and number has been growing since then (Fan et al., 2001; Shaw, 2007). Researchers define two types of alliances: tactical (low-risk, no major resource commitments, marketing benefits only) and strategic (Bennett, 1997). Strategic alliances tend to have longer time span, wider scope, higher level of commitment (Weber, 2005) as well as joint marketing efforts and network-wide cooperation (Fan et al., 2001). Antitrust immunity is a key in strategic alliance. Moreover, codesharing, joint marketing and fares, frequent flyer benefits, baggage handling, shared use of hangars and various services are parts of strategic alliance (Weber, 2005). Three largest and most known strategic alliances nowadays are Star Alliance (25 member airlines), SkyTeam (15 members) and Oneworld (11 members). However, not all airlines pursue membership in strategic alliances, some prefer to operate on their own, sometimes benefiting through tactical alliances with selected partners.
CHAPTER THREE
OVERVIEW OF THE EXISTING SYSTEM
Research Methodology
Methodology is the part of any analysis or research that is used to find out what type of data is maintained, what fact to find and look for, how to find them and how to record them for usage. In order to achieve these, Structured System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM) were used in the design of the new system. This is because; SSADM is an internationally accepted software engineering model mainly used in most result oriented analysis.
Structured System Analysis Design and Methodology (SSADM) involve different steps:
Problem Identification.
Here, the problems and weaknesses of the present system were identified.
Feasibility Study
The feasibility study is basically the test of the proposed system in the light of its workability, meeting user’s requirements, effective use of resources and cost effectiveness.
System Analysis
It will help to identify the requirements and needs of the system and modelling these needs in terms of the processes carried out.
System Design
The design proceeds in two stages:
- Preliminary or general design
- Structure or detailed design
In the preliminary or general design, the features of the new system are specified. The costs of implementing these features and the benefits to be derived are estimated.
In the detailed design stage, the design of the system becomes more structured. Structure design is a blue print of a computer system solution to a given problem having the same components and inter-relationship among the same components as the original problem. Input, output and processing specifications are drawn up in detail. In the design stage, the programming language and the platform in which the new system will run are also decided.
There are several tools and techniques used for designing. These tools and techniques are:
- Flowchart
- Data flow diagram (DFDs)
- Data dictionary
- Structured English
- Decision table
- Decision tree
The new system, which is computerized, is designed to be very effective and very fast in data processing when compared with the existing system, which is ineffective.
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
Objective of Design
The objective of the new system is to design a system for domestic flight customer information management. The design will cover all aspect of flight scheduling and management system. The new system is designed to take care of the following:
- Create an online system for customers to view all domestic flights operators in Nigeria.
- Create an online system for customers to view domestic flight schedule and their flight rate.
- Give online access to passenger’s suggestions or complaint on flight operations.
- Showcase flight maintenance information to customers
- Give passengers access to send their complaint about flight operations or services.
- Creates online news publication for flight operators accessible to customers.
- Makes available the number of flights operated by an airline.
- Maintain a robust database for flight information management
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSIONS
Summary of Achievement
Domestic flight customer information management system designed in this project work will assist aviation industries and passengers to have a quicker access to flight information. The new system has provision for customer complaint. The complaint module is designed to enable customers post any of their complaint against flight operators or services online. The complaint posted is accessible to all website visitors.
Also, in the new system, the airline module is designed to display flight operators online. This contains their name, call sign, hub airport, as well as display flight schedule online. This allows users to select the airline and the system will display their flight schedule.
The admin uses the admin module to create airline information, flight information, flight scheduling, news update, flight maintenance, and maintain the database. This module can also enable administrator to view database reports.
The integration of the whole system into one platform for an effective flight customer information management system is achieved using a robust database – My-Sql and a server scripting language Php.
Problems Encountered
The development of domestic flight customer information management system software was not an easy one. Many challenges were faced by the researcher which includes:
- Materials: Sourcing for information on flight scheduling, maintenance, and other related information was not easy as many of the operators are afraid to release the information for security reasons.
- Fund: Project of this nature requires a lot of finance to carry it out which poses a serious set back to the researcher.
- Programming Skill: The researcher has no good knowledge of Php-Mysql before embarking on this project. So it took the researcher a lot of time and fund to study the programming language before starting the program development.
Recommendations
For proper and effective deployment of the software developed in this research work, it is recommended that:
- Proper Training should be conducted for staff of Domestic Flights in Nigeria on Information Technology usage.
- There is need for re-orientation of the staff on the need to adapt to electronic means of processing data.
- Government should help and finance the procurement of the needed hardware to enable smooth deployment of the software.
- A group should be set up to manage the software so as to carry out the maintenance operation when needed.
Conclusion
The project work has exposed a lot of information relating to the activities of aviation industries with respect to flight reservation and booking. Also it has been observed that with the trend in technology, most businesses are computerized and with the computerization of the process for flight ticket reservations, the customers can easily make their air seat reservations. Also, flight schedule information can be obtained online with all the needed information on flight maintenance and purchase history. With the system developed, air passengers can easily take decisions on the flight to board based on the information available to them online.
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