Of airplane schedules in Italy

Will it someday be said in Italy that CRM made the planes run on time?

Believe it or not, in that nation known for it’s, um, Mediterranean devotion to the schedules is buckling down to compete in a deflating industry in the 21st century. Air Italy is currently in process of changing its business model from charter airline to one of scheduled services, and today company officials announced their intention to place more emphasis on effective customer relationship management. Et voila! (Or, rather, whatever the Italian equivalent would be…), Sabre Airline Solutions found itself with a contract worth more than US $3 million.

Under terms of the deal, Sabre, a vendor of software and services for the airline industry will provide reservations, check-in, ticketing and online booking components; customer relationship, codeshare and fare management products; and an automated tool to assist in streamlining the collection of ticketing fees arising from itinerary changes and upgrades. The SabreSonic Ticket component will reportedly give Air Italy full electronic ticketing capabilities ahead of the IATA-mandated 2007 deadline for the technology.

Air Italy’s decision to use the SabreSonic suite of products was due, in part, to the products’ integrated PNR (passenger name record) technology. The airline concluded that there was significant competitive advantage in the fact that reservations, inventory and departure control systems all use the same core data, regardless of when or where that information is updated.

Of course, the decision was also made possible by the recent securing of some US $37.6 million in capital expenditure funding by Air Italy.

More than 200 airlines use Sabre Airline Solutions’ portfolio of decision-support tools, including British Airways, KLM, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, United, Northwest Airlines, Alitalia, Air One, and Alpi Eagles.