JEDDAH, 13 September 2006 — Saudi Arabian Airlines will begin implementing by next week new service for sending flight tickets within 24 hours and boarding passes within 72 hours by express mail to passengers’ addresses anywhere in the Kingdom.
Saudia Director General Khalid Al-Mulhim said yesterday that this service would be part of the carrier’s new programs, which will include making reservations and payments online.
“It’s part of a range of services the airline is planning to implement by adopting the concept of e-commerce as a strategic option and facilitating the complete environment for developing the programs and operating the system in its marketing, technical and administrative areas,” said Mulhim. Twenty-five travel agencies and Saudia branches will be linked in the next week in Jeddah, Riyadh, Madinah and Makkah by automated departure system that issues boarding passes for domestic flights. The system will then be implemented in all travel agencies in the Kingdom in the second phase.
Other projects being implemented include: increasing the number of the self-serve kiosks for reservations, ticketing, payments and obtaining boarding passes in all Saudia offices and large commercial centers. Saudia will also implement electronic ticketing project in 2007. Electronic ticketing, by which your ticketing information is issued through the convenience of email and you use the email to obtain your boarding pass at the airport, is a popular and common service worldwide. However, the service is not offered in the Kingdom. Even passengers flying to the Kingdom from abroad on other carriers are required to pick up physical tickets or have tickets delivered to them before they can board Saudi-bound flights.
Al-Mulhim has been keen on improving Saudia services. He recently ordered renewing and establishing counters for people with special needs in King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and finding a waiting lounge especially for them to facilitate their travel. He said that there would be more of these counters in all the airports.
As part of implementing the steps to privatize the airline’s non-basic units, such as ground support and catering, Al-Mulhim restructured the advisory council for health services under his chairmanship and the membership of some of his assistances, department managers, general director of health services and the heads of health services in Riyadh, Madinah and Dhahran. The decision also added a number of tasks to the supervising executive council including transferring the health services into a profit center that provides joint health services to the employees and their families of the holding company and the strategic units within three to five years. It also tasked it to develop the health services’ financial system and independent billing by establishing an independent financial administration.