Saudi Arabian Airlines has launched an eBusiness center that uses IBM's WebSphere technology.
The announcement is the first phase of a series of planned implementations aimed at supporting the airlines e-business strategies and boosting its internal capabilities to leverage Internet technologies. Jointly, a technical Saudi team supported by IBM and Saudi Business Machines (SBM), its general marketing and services representative for the Kingdom, successfully completed this phase.
Saudia Airlines' existing IBM mainframe environment is one of the largest in the Middle East where it runs more than 90 mission critical systems that have to be accessed from over 75 cities around the world. The airline also has a set of Web-enabled applications that are based on different transaction monitors and data base engines, including IBM's DB2 platform.
Saudi Arabian Airlines has set plans to expand into other specific IT projects, such as introducing an enhanced and consolidated customer portal, mobile business using SMS, WAP and wireless computing as well as enterprise Web content management.
Saudi Arabian Airlines was established in 1945 by the Kingdom's founder, the late King Abdulaziz Al-Saud, with a single DC-3 aircraft. Today the airline carries over 14 million passengers annually between 80 domestic and international destinations.
In 1998, the airline's fleet underwent a major expansion program with the addition of 61 new aircraft, including B747-468s, B777-268s, MD-90s and MD-11 freighters. It operates a fleet of 139 jets to destinations in the Middle East, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, the Far East, Europe, and the US. — (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
