DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AIRLINE FLIGHT INFORMATION SYSTEM

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AIRLINE FLIGHT INFORMATION SYSTEM

(A CASE STUDY OF AIR NIGERIA, LAGOS STATE.)

ABSTRACT

This project was out of the necessity to address the inherent problems encountered by members of staff of Air Nigeria and their customers. The manual processes involved in the management of airline were critical examined and the flows noted. The software so designed offers to a great extent, the solutions to these problems. The project went further to ret the different techniques used in implementing the newly design software in order to facilitate a broader understanding of the design software by any user. Airline flight information system are used to track and maintain records of flight schedules, passenger reservations and seat assignments, aircraft loading, flight inventory, ticket purchases and fare tariffs. The modern airline reservation system also serves customer needs from beginning to end of each customer’s reserved flight, therefore laying out management tasks for each flight.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

It is obvious that everything that is sustainable would have to go through advancement. In science and technology, the desire for improvement is a constant subject which triggers advancements. This is visible in every ramification and the airline industry is not an exemption.

Airline flight information system (ARS) used to be standalone systems. Each airline had its own system, disconnected from other airlines or ticket agents, and usable only by a designated number of airline employees. Travel agents in the 1970s pushed for access to the airlines’ systems. Today, air travel information is linked, stored, and retrieved by a network of Computer Reservations Systems (CRS), accessible by multiple airlines and travel agents. The global distribution system (GDS) makes for an even larger web of airline information, not only merging the buying and selling of tickets for
multiple airlines, but also making the systems accessible to consumers directly. GDS portals and gateways on the Web allow consumers to purchase tickets directly, select seats, and even book hotels and rental cars.(Winston, Clifford 1995).

Aviation jobs are known for hitech. Many of the aviation jobs are made available by the airline operators and airport authorities. Aviation jobs are one of the few Nigerian jobs that pay like their foreign counterparts. With the recent aviation security measures, aviation recruitments are done very carefully. Airline operators are now serious in their screening processes than before. This is because, any kind of misconduct or insecurity may lead to their license withdrawal.

Most graduates are hired through internships which are normally advertised on this site. These are still very competitive since many applicants rush for them whenever available. Graduates also get lucky to be hired through „Hosts‟ recruitments i.e. when airline operators want to hire staff that will be serving inside the airplane.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Air Nigeria (formerly Nigerian Eagle Airlines and Virgin Nigeria Airways), is the national flag carrier of Nigeria. The airline operates scheduled regional and domestic passenger services. Its base is Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos. The airline is a replacement for defunct Nigeria Airways. Its registered office is in Ikoyi, Lagos State, while its head office is on the 9th floor of Etiebets Place in Ikeja, Lagos State.

The carrier’s loyalty programme is named ‘Eagleflier’. On 28 September 2004, the Nigerian government and Virgin Group signed an agreement to establish a new airline for Nigeria, to be called Virgin Nigeria Airways. Nigerian institutional investors own 51% of the company and Virgin Atlantic Airways owns 49%. The airline’s inaugural flight was on 28 June 2005 from Lagos to London Heathrow using an Airbus A340-300 aircraft. Virgin Nigeria has since gone on to become one of Nigeria’s largest airlines carrying its 1,000,000th passenger and 4,000th ton of airline within two years of operation. The airline has also received accolades including THISDAY Awards 2006 Airline of the year and a nomination for 2006 African Airline of the year by ASATA (Association of South African Travel Agents).  Virgin Nigeria had plans of making Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja its second base where in addition to its Lagos base Murtala Mohammed International Airport it will serve all countries in West Africa.

The Nigerian government set a deadline of 30 April 2007 for all airlines operating in the country to re-capitalise or be grounded, in an effort to ensure better services and safety. The airline satisfied the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA)‟s criteria in terms of re-capitalization and was re-registered for operation Aviation jobs in Nigeria are definitely scarce. They are seen as high qualification and technical jobs. Many of the aviation jobs are for captains, air hosts/hostesses, aviation maintenance engineers, aviation security guards, traffic and movement controllers etc.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The management of Airline in Nigeria has over the years attracted poor patronage as a result of errors inherent in the system. It is no longer a new thing that loss of customers‟ goods is now the order of the day, the reasons are not far-fetched. Due to this manual procedure involved in Airline management, clients have no other option than to be at the mercy of these error prone procedures. The method of information storage in the company is poor. This limits the number of official documents accessible by the customers because the system is not capable of managing old items of information which could be of use to be customer of anytime.

There is little or no security control system where the customers‟ goods, document and classified information of the customer could be safe guarded from unauthorized access.

1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This project is aimed at exposing the relevance and importance of Airline flight information system (AFIS). It is projected towards enhancing the relationship between customers and airline agencies through the use of ARSs, thereby easing the flight ticketing and selling process and all air traveling operations.

1.4 LIMITATIONS

The project work is limited to ONLINE AIRLINE RESERVATION PORTAL FOR TRAVELING SERVICES PROVIDER. In the process of carrying out this research work, some factors tried to hinder the free flow of work. These factors include

1. Time: Time factors in the sense that the semester was short and as a result combing this work with studies was tedious.
2. Finance: Finances were rather on the lean side and as a result it affected the carrying out the research in that monetary commitment was needed for going to the case study, photocopying document, browsing etc.

1.5 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The Airline Reservation System (ARS) is a software application to assist an airline with transactions related to making ticket reservations, which includes blocking, reserving, cancelling and rescheduling tickets.

1. Minimize repetitive work done by the system administrator and reservation clerks.
2. Maintain consistency among different access modes, e.g. by phone, by web, at the information desk and across different physical locations. The users should be basically taken through the same steps by the system as they go through in conventional desk-reservation systems.
3. Maintain customer information in case of emergency, e.g. flight cancellation due to inclement weather. The profile can also be used by the airline company to track user preferences and travel patterns to serve them better, plan routes, for better marketing and efficient scheduling of flights.
4. Maximize the revenue of the airline company by various means:
5. Increase awareness among frequent travelers about various special offers and discounts.
6. Minimize the number of vacant seats on a flight and maximize flight capacity utilization.
7. Maintain the capability to adopt a flexible pricing policy. The price of the tickets should be dynamically determined based on how early, before the date of departure, the customer buys the ticket.

1.6 SIGNIFICANT OF STUDY

The significant of Airline management system is the computerization of the activities of the organization. It helps to facilitate the dairy operation of the organization. The economy of the organization is affected positively because of the computerization of their operation.

The findings of this research will also help the management to increase the income generation and smooth running of the everyday activities. This presentation will be beneficial to all those who make use of Airline flight information system (ARSs), flight operators, air traveling operators, travel agents and airline agencies. In addition, it will assist all those in computer-related disciplines who may want to appreciate the system and also those doing research on similar topic.

1.7 SCOPE OF DELIMITATIONS

This study is restricted to the full operations of Air Nigeria Company with respect to ONLINE AIRLINE RESERVATION PORTAL FOR TRAVELING SERVICES PROVIDER.

1.8 ASSUMPTIONS

It is assumed that the new system will do the following: a. the new system will create room for the client to know all the necessary facts about their operation. b. The new system will create an avenue where by the measurement and Gross weight of the airline will be known and the commensurate fees to be paid. C. The new system will also make all the on-line operations carried out in airline management in Air Nigeria an easy task for official and staff of the establishment.

1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS

1. Administration: is an aspect of running the organization by devising systems which will run smoothly.
2. Client: This any process that request specific services from server processes.
3. Computer: This is an electrons machine that can accept; handle and manipulate data by performing arithmetic and logic operations without human intervention usually under the control of programmes.
4. Data: This is for runner of information. It is unprocessed fact.
5. Database is a collection of information that is related to a particular subject or purpose.
6. Hardware: This is the electromechanical part of computer system.
7. Information: This is data that have been processed, interpreted and understood by the recipient of the message or report.
8. Internet: Internet is a collection of computer networks that operate to common standards and enable the computes and the program they run to communicate directly.
9. Server: This is a process that provides requested services for clients.

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

The history of airline reservations systems began in the late 1950s when American Airlines required a system that would allow real-time access to flight details in all of its offices, and the integration and automation of its booking and ticketing processes. As a result, Sabre (Semi-Automated Business Research Environment) was developed and launched in 1964. Sabre’s breakthrough was its ability to keep inventory correct in real time, accessible to agents around the world. Prior to this, manual systems required centralized reservation centres, groups of people in a room with the physical cards that represented inventory, in this case, seats on airplanes.

The deregulation of the airline industry, in the Airline Deregulation Act, meant that airlines, which had previously operated under government-set fares ensuring airlines at least broke even, now needed to improve efficiency to compete in a free market.