Air Malta has launched its new extensive portal airmalta.com with a new enhanced internet booking engine. The new portal was launched during a press conference addressed by Minister for Investment, Industry and Information Technology, Dr Austin Gatt and Air Malta’s Chairman, Mr Lawrence Zammit together with Mr Joe Cappello, Air Malta’s Chief Executive and with Dr Brock Friesen, Chief Officer Commercial.

The portal has been designed to offer a one-stop-shop to customers through a range of online booking and payment facilities that include Air Malta flights, a wide selection of hotel accommodation in Malta and car hire. The booking engine will provide customers the facility to book Air Malta flights in five steps. The booking engine is fully integrated with the airline’s Sabre reservations system and is directly linked with two payment gateways to allow both local and foreign cash transactions.

Air Malta has recognised that Information Communication Technology (ICT) as a strategic enabler for its survival, ongoing business transformation and future success. An Information Systems Strategic Plan was produced in April 2006 to chart the course for current and future information system needs of Air Malta. The new portal and booking engine form an integral part of the Air Malta ICT strategy that is aimed at increasing revenue, efficiency, communication with customers, and to enhance customer satisfaction levels.

The airline has also recently launched for its staff a self-service web-based Oracle Human Resources suite. Other projects are in the pipeline and in the coming months the airline will be introducing web check-in for inbound and outbound passengers, check-in via mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), a web-based strategic management tool to monitor key performance indicators by management, implementation of a revenue accounting system and other ICT initiatives.