JEDDAH, 22 September 2004 — Saudi Arabian Airlines is reviewing a study on the prospects of fare cuts on the Kingdom’s domestic routes. Currently under study is a project to operate smaller aircraft on its feeder network to ease pressure on major airports.
“While the study for fare cuts has already been presented to the Saudia board, the other for operating smaller aircraft is also under review,” Dr. Khaled A. Ben-Bakr, director general of the airline, told reporters on the sidelines of a Total Quality conference — the airline’s first, which he opened yesterday.
“Saudi Arabian Airlines is implementing a new quality concept and improving quality is one of our strategies and marketing plans,” he said, explaining the importance of the two-day “scientific and educational” conference.
Dr. Ben-Bakr said the airline carried 1.6 million passengers in July and 1.7 million in August, and was getting closer to the annual target of transporting 15 million passengers by the end of 2004. The introduction of round-the-clock e-service for reservation and automatic issuance of boarding passes has been welcomed by passengers.
“Saudia is member of International Air Transport Association (IATA) and whatever is applicable to international airlines will be applicable to Saudia in all matters including fares,” he said. “Like all airlines the world over, Saudia is also affected by rising oil prices,” he added.
“Quality can make or break any organization, whether it’s the aviation industry or any other organization or sector of industry,” Dr. Ben-Bakr said. “An organization that does not have a system, mechanism, philosophy and strategy for total quality management will not achieve the goals and objectives it has set for itself,” he said, adding that Saudia is committed to quality for long, thanks to its various divisions that have been jointly contributing toward it through a pragmatic approach.
“Lately, we organized a panel that will oversee the implementation of total quality of Saudia,” he said and hoped the conference participants would benefit from exchange of views and experiences with experts from national and international organizations. “We want to discuss the concept of quality from the regional and international perspectives and, most importantly, from an Islamic perspective,” he said and emphasized that the conference is designed to reach an agreement on the best method of managing quality in Saudia.
Dr. Hatem Salah Abuljadael, vice president, human resources, and chairman of the Total Quality Board of Saudia, explained the conference theme “Quality: Contemporary Practices and Future Challenges.” Various scientific papers and discussions will focus on the evaluation of currently practiced quality programs at the conference that aim to support the airline’s mission statement, policies and commitment to quality.
“Saudia will continue to organize such forums to strengthen the inter-relationship between its various divisions and urge them toward involvement in the race toward Total Quality concepts,” he said.
As a matter of strategy for the airline, Saudia provides the “highest levels” of services to achieve customer satisfaction, Dr. Abuljadael said, and stressed that Saudia was in line with its goals and objectives and met current trends in quality through the acquisition of quality performance programs and technology.
“Saudia is keen to improve quality concepts and standards, applying the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the other improvement tools to achieve customer satisfaction,” he added.
A panel of experts on total quality from within and outside the Kingdom is participating in the conference. The seminars and open discussions during the two-day sessions are designed to ingrain a culture of quality and thought.
The opening day’s sessions included lectures and presentations on “The hard necessity of providing service excellence in airlines” by Professor Mohammed Zaire and Dr. Tariq Alsewedan. Other speakers were A. Rahman Al-Elsheikh of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) on the company’s experiment with total quality, Dr. Aied Ben Talie Alamri on quality policies in Saudia and Bandar Al-Gahtani on applications of re-engineering in Saudia.
