ADC's Ticketing Innovation

By

Solomon Ibharuneafe

Monday, March 15, 2004

Air travellers can now book their flights from the comfort of their homes, courtesy of ADC's e-ticketing project

Passengers on the domestic route may soon not need to travel long distances to their book flights anymore. This is because Aviation Development Company, ADC, in collaboration with First Atlantic Online Bank, has introduced e-ticketing to ease the problem associated with booking of flights by customers.

With e-ticket, travellers using ADC airline on the domestic route can buy their tickets on-line and pay for the ticket with a Flash Me Cash Card via a GSM phone. The Flash Me Cash Card is a money transfer system by First Atlantic On-line Bank by which transactions are made through a credit card sized document with N10,000, N5,000 and N1,000 denomination and sent via an SMS enabled mobile phone. It can be used for payment of ADC e-tickets, instant money transfer and for subscriptions on DSTV, club membership telephone, electricity, water rates and birthday cards.

Deji Oguntonade, managing director of First Atlantic Online Bank, explained that customers wishing to use the e-ticket facility must belong to a Flash Me Cash Card club and possess a GSM phone. The customer, according to him, would log on to First Atlantic On-line bank after registration and have his account debited instantly. He explained that the customer would supply his name, address, date of travel and destination, which will appear on the ticket without the customer going to ADC ticket booking office. The customer would walk to the tarmac to board the aircraft where his name would have been entered into the manifest, he said, adding that the customer would be allowed to board the aircraft after the production of a valid identity card.

The bank chief executive explained further that after all information have been provided, an SMS is sent to a system that processes the transaction and sends a feedback to the customer via an SMS. According to him, a customer can receive a message on the status of his account and his debit balance through the SMS on his GSM phone.

On the question of security of the system, the managing director said the flash me cash card had a pin number like the valucard and credit card known only to the account holder. "It is convenient and secure," he added.

This is not the first time e-ticketing is being introduced into the aviation sector, British Airways last year introduced a similar product on the international route. Folakemi Ani-Mumuney, strategy and business planning manager of the airline, said the introduction of e-ticketing was to ensure that doing business with British Airways was made easier for customers. "It will enable them do things for themselves, things they ordinarily would not have been able to do," she said. Bukky Akintobi the company's marketing services manager for West Africa said all the passengers needed to do was to log on to ba.com for booking and other information without collecting or carrying ticket.

Oguntonade, explained that the use of electronic ticketing by ADC was a revolution in the aviation industry, especially on the domestic route. He said the system would save time, eliminate queues at the ADC ticket booking office. He listed other benefits to customers to include enhancing alternate mode of payment for ADC tickets, high degree of security in each transaction, high level of confidence and comfort, convenience of payment anytime and anywhere and availability of 24 hours call centre.

Akin Osuntoki, head of marketing and sales of ADC, said the marriage between ADC and First Atlantic Bank was the hallmark of all progressive organisations. He said there was a lot of competition in the aviation sector and that was why ADC was moving service to the door-steps of customers through e-ticketing.