“We have already started implementing the new system from the beginning of this week,” said Abdullah Al-Ajhar, vice president for public relations.
Passengers traveling on flights within three days should buy their tickets within six hours while those traveling after three days should buy them within 48 hours after booking.
“The objective behind the new system is to make more seats available to sure passengers,” Al-Ajhar said. The new system would be implemented on First Class and Business Class passengers gradually, if it was necessary.
Many passengers were not following the time limit to purchase tickets due to long period allowed under the previous system, the vice president said. Previously, Saudia passengers were given 24 hours to purchase ticket when their flights were to take off in 72 hours and more than 72 hours for flights after 14 days.
Muhammad Yousuf Jan, general manager of the Central Call Center and Telephonic Sales, said the new system would enable Saudia to manage peak seasons successfully by providing more seats to passengers.
He hoped the new system would help reduce the number of passengers who do not purchase tickets within the time limit from existing 30 percent to a reasonably low percentage. “This will reduce pressure on Saudia and enable it to offer more seats.”
Jan said his department had received encouraging results within two days after implementing the new system. “We have implemented the new system to serve customer interests in the first place, and create more seats for passengers.”
He added: “Most airline companies apply the Book & Buy system, especially for their domestic flights. We hope that we would be able to achieve the objective of the new system, which is to make cent percent use of all seats on the aircraft.” He urged all Saudia passengers to purchase tickets quickly without delay.
