Skyways, the Swedish regional airline, announced a $6.2 million five-year contract with SITA to overhaul its passenger management processes and to manage seasonal variations in its passenger traffic which reached 800,000 last year.
 
Skyways will migrate its reservations and associated systems to SITA’s advanced Passenger Management and Revenue Optimization Solution Suites in order to improve their distribution and customer management processes as well as saving $3 million on their passenger management overheads due to transactional costs decreasing.  
 
Soren Roos, VP Revenue Management, Skyways, said: “SITA is able to act as a one-stop-shop, offering a solution with greater functionality that will enable us to better manage aircraft load factors, contain costs and improve our passenger management processes. Our customers will benefit by having more choice and future demands will be met as we expand.”
 
The deal includes: Departure Control Services for automated passenger check-in, boarding control, load planning and weight and balance; Reservations for flight inventory control and management information; Revenue Management to allocate seats by value and maximize aircraft capacity; and Passenger Revenue Accounting to automate and bring this vital management in-house.
 
SITA Revenue Management provides conditional-based selling which is of particular importance to Skyways, as there is a significant seasonal variation between winter, when the airline carries mainly business travelers, and summer, when it largely carries tourists. Skyways will now be able to manage this in a way they could not achieve before.  
 
Having these two types of markets at different times in the year is not uncommon in Scandinavia and Skyways will now be able to forecast accurately, allowing for these seasonal differences, and sell the right seat, at the right price, to the right person for optimal seat yields.
 
Rob Watkins, SITA Regional Vice President for Northern Europe, said: “We are very pleased to sign this contract with Skyways which demonstrates how SITA can help regional airlines. Not only is passenger management improved with our enhanced functionality, but costs are reduced and the all inclusive price makes budgeting easier.”