DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN
ADVANCE AIRLINE RESERVATION SYSTEM
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
It is apparent that everything that
is sustainable would have to go through advancement. In Information and
Communication Technology (ICT), the desire for improvement is a constant
subject which triggers advancements. This is visible in every aspect of our
lives and the airline industry is not excluded.
By convergence of the world into a global village, travelling
great distances has become so common for not only business but also for
pleasure purposes. Due to the fast paced nature of the world today, air travel
is considered as one of the first choice among several modes of transportation
to save time and one of the tools passengers use to speed up the process of
travelling by air is the Airline Reservation System (ARS), especially
passengers who don’t have time to or don’t want to visit a travel agent.
Keeping in mind the fact that people might not have enough time out of their
busy routine to go and visit a travel agent in order to make a reservation, most
airlines have offered their services over the World Wide Web. Therefore
internet has become the integral part of the flight reservation process not
only for travel agents, who sits in the office and makes use of web servers of
different airlines to find out the most suitable flight for a particular
customer, but also for the customers who want to reserve flights online without
necessarily having to contact air travel agents (Jones, 2004).
An
airline reservation system is very important because it has the strong ability
to reduce errors that might have occurred when using a manual system of
reservation. The online system makes it possible for customers to book the
flights as when they require. Customers can therefore make use of this system
to make reservations, modify reservations in addition to cancel reservations.
The flight reservation system software should be specially developed so as to
function as an independent application. It should be established as a
self-contained product (Milde, 2008).
The need of this system was realized since the beginning stages of
the airline industry when information such as routes, aircrafts, schedules and
fares about flights was published by airlines in large books. Travel agents had
the difficult task of looking into separate books for reservations that involve
multiple airlines. It was a dream to get a real time picture of available seats
because airlines share information at day end only. American Airline was the
first to build the computerized system to allow access to real time data to all
its offices. In 1964, Semi-Automated Business Research Environment (SABRE) was
developed with the help of IBM. SABRE’s achievement was its capacity to keep
inventory correct in real time, accessible to agents around the world. Prior to
this, manual systems required centralized reservation centers, groups of people
in a room with the physical cards that represented inventory, in this case,
seats on airplanes (Desmond, 2000).
In this regard, an improved airline reservation system is implemented
to assist Overland Airways with a variety of airline administration tasks and
service passenger needs from the time of initial reservation through completion
of the flight.
An improved airline reservation system will be developed with
facilities that will enable passengers of Overland Airways book available
flights, select seats for their flights, print boarding passes, access aircraft
maintenance report, check-in online for their flight with the hope that it will
help the airline by streamlining their process of reservation without human
interaction so as to enable them perform well in the highly competitive market
place.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
During this research work, it was discovered that the Airline
Reservation System used by Overland Airways offer the basic features of a
reservation system such as searching for flights, selecting available flights
and paying for the reservation. This discovery brought about the idea of
creating an improved ARS. Some of the problems being faced by the existing
system include:
I.
Inability of passengers to select seat(s) for
their chosen flight(s) from the existing reservation system. This has
ultimately resulted in time being wasted at the check-in counter in assigning seats
to passengers before they are allowed to board the airplane.
II.
No option of passengers printing their boarding pass from
the existing system.
III.
Non notification of passengers in the event of
flight cancellation or delays
IV.
No access to aircraft maintenance reports to
ease passenger fears as regards to air travel and its disasters.
1.3 AIM AND
OBJECTIVES
The
aim of this project is to design an improved ARS that will allow passengers of
Overland Airways to book their flights with the following objectives:
1. To study the existing Airline Reservation
System’s challenges and to infer possible solutions.
2. To design an improved ARS that will
solve the problems being faced by the existing system which include: inability
of passengers to select seats for their chosen flight, no option of passengers
printing their boarding pass, non-notification of passengers of flight
cancellations or delays and lack of access to aircraft maintenance reports.
3. To implement the design and create
an ARS that captures self-booking.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE
OF THE STUDY
This
project work will be beneficial to the passengers and help improve the
relationship between the passengers and the airline.
It
will help save time during passenger boarding as passengers will be able to
select their seat(s) and also print their boarding pass from the reservation
system and therefore reduce loading time instead of waiting in line at the
check-in counter to select their seats and collect their boarding pass before
being allowed to board the airplane, and help minimize the number of vacant
seats on a flight and maximize flight capacity utilization and also help the
airline by streamlining their process of reservation without human interaction
hence enabling them to perform well in the highly competitive market place.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE
STUDY
The scope of this project is to
create a system that will allow potential airline passengers of Overland
Airways search and book available flights, select seats for their flights, pay
for the booking, print their boarding pass only after payment has been made, access
aircraft maintenance reports and be notified of flight cancellation or delays.
1.6 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The limitation of this project is
that owing to the various types of airplanes, with each one built for a
specific purpose and has a different shape and design, the seat map used in
this project is restricted to the seat layout of the three (3) different
airplane types used by Overland Airways, hence the aircraft maintenance reports
will also be limited to these three (3) airplane types.
1.7 OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS OF TERMS
The following are some of the terms
used in this project:
1. Aircraft Maintenance Report: This is
a document that shows the periodic inspections that have been carried out on an
aircraft.
2. Airline: An airline is a company
that uses airplanes to transport people from one place to another.
3. Boarding Pass: This is a document
provided by an airline when the ticket is issued or upon check-in at an
airport, giving a passenger permission to board the airplane for a particular
flight.
4. Cancel Reservation: This is the act
of giving up or cancelling your reservation.
5. Check-In Counter: This is where
passengers check in to the airline, buy or confirm their ticket, get their
boarding pass and check in their luggage.
6. Check-In: This is the act of reporting
one’s presence and registering at an airport which can also be carried out from
the reservation system.
7. Computer Reservation System (CRS):
This is a computerized system that is used to store and retrieve information
and conduct transactions related to air travel. It was originally designed and
operated by airlines and was later extended for the use of travel agencies.
8. Database: This is a collection of
information that is organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly
select desired pieces of data.
9. Fare: This is the money that a
particular flight costs.
10. Flight Schedule: This contains
information such as date, departure and arrival time of flights.
11. Flight: This is the act or process
of travelling by air.
12. Global Distribution System (GDS): This is a system operated by a company that
allows automated transactions between third parties and travel agents in order
to provide travel-related services to the end clients.
13. Itinerary: This is a document that
records a route or a journey that you are going to make, including information
about when and where you will travel.
14. Modify Reservation: This is the act
of making changes to your reservation.
15. Passenger Name Record (PNR): This is
a record in the database of a reservation system that contains passenger
personal information such as name, contact details, ticketing details such as a
ticket number and the itinerary.
16. Reservation: This is an arrangement
where something such as a seat on an aircraft is withheld or kept for a
particular person.
17. Route: This is the way or direction
that planes travel regularly.
18. Search Engine: This is the part of
the reservation system that searches for and identifies flights in a database
that correspond to parameters specified or inputted by the passenger.
19. Seat Inventory: This contains all
the available seats for flights.
20. Seat Map: This is a graphical
representation of the layout of seats inside a passenger aircraft. They are of
use to passengers for selection of their seat at booking or check-in and are often
published by airlines for informational purposes.
21. Travel Agent: This is a person or
company that arranges tickets or book flights for passengers.