The Improvement of Airline Tickets Selling Process

Duran Li (103034466) Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management,

National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

Abstract. The process of a customer booking an airline ticket is always lengthy and annoying. Especially you haven’t got the ticket ID after you have paid for a long time. Therefore, the goal of my term project is to improve the efficiency of the airlines company through INCOME software. Also I will build a network platform (a website) to present the process for customer booking tickets and the airline company maintaining the website. Furthermore, I intend to create XML documents for order data and ticket information. Throughout this paper will use e-enterprise integration method for selling process and website interface improvement.

Keywords. Enterprise Process Model; ASP.NET; SQL Database; Information System; XML Documents; E-Enterprise Integration.

Introduction

Problem: Recently, the effectiveness and efficiency of the process for a customer booking tickets are made an important performance index for checking airline. However, the old selling processing step (show as Figure 1) such as: customer went to travel agency or call the agent, the order data delivery to the airline company, the ticket information deliver back to the agency, and print out the ticket. It cost lots of time and paper (the paper tickets). Thus, this rule of selling tickets can’t face to the customer requirement anymore. Scope: Nowadays, with the development of information system, the airline tickets selling process can be substituted for the online booking system (tickets selling website). The process of ticket selling for both customer and company (airline) can be simplified, and it shows as Figure 2. In other words, the paper will build a tickets selling procedure removing the process of agent involved, which showed as Figure 3. The As-is process model is shown as Figure 3(a), which described the process as: a customer buying tickets from airline through the travel agency. And the to-be process model is shown as Figure 3(b). The Airline Association is a partnership for many airlines. We can buy flight tickets from it as like we buy the tickets from the airline company directly. Thus, the airline association provides a platform to compare, choose and buy flight tickets. By setting up an airline association, we can sell (or purchase) flight tickets conveniently. By comparing those three processes above, the to-be process save lots of cost, including time, money and etc. Purpose: The main purpose of the paper was to decrease the process time of buying tickets (for customers) and selling tickets (for airline). Moreover, after searching and

reading some related literature, I found that there is another thing which could be improved in the tickets selling process – the paper tickets. With the great development of science and technology, big data as buying records and registration records can be recorded, and it can be quickly found and invoked. Therefore, airline ticket can be replaced by an e-tickets (a record of payment as a virtual ticket), and it will be a paperless process so that the time of customer picking up the ticket will be saved. And we can transplant this concept to our airline association. The customer's order delivery to the airline association and then the order information is sent to the airline individually from the association to the corresponding airline.

(Customer->Agent) Make an order (book tickets)

(Agent->Airline) Delivery order data to airline

(Airline) Processing and record the data

(Airline->Agent) Delivery back the ticket info.

(Customer) Visit to the Airline Website

(Customer) Make a call to agent

(Agent->Customer) Print out the paper ticket

Cost time

The process can be

simplified

Cost paper

Figure 1. Flow Diagram of As-Is Tickets Selling Process

(Customer->Airline) Make an order (book tickets)

(Airline association) Processing the data

(Airline) Processing and record the data

(Customer) Make a call to the Airline

(Customer) Visit to the Airline Website

(Airline->Customer) Feedback the ticket info.

Figure 2. Flow Diagram of To-Be Tickets Selling Process

(Agent)

(Customer)

(Airline)

①

②③

④

(a)

(Customer)

(Airline association)

① ②

(b)

(Airline) (Airline) …

Figure 3. Flow Diagram of Tickets Selling Process

1. Behavior Model Display and Analysis

This section informs about the display of tickets selling process As-Is model, To-Be model, organization model and object model. Each model would be illustrated individual and displayed via INCOME.

The difference between AS-IS model and TO-BE model is that: The process of existing flight tickets selling website (as-is model) is asking data

from the database of each airline company after customer searching such flight tickets, and feedback to the customer. While the airline association website (to-be model) is to build up a database includes the flight tickets information about every airline company, and customer search information from this integrate database.

In the existing website (as-is model), there will be a critical problem that a customer may sometimes couldn’t get the tickets even if he has booked it. The reason is the agent make an order for the airline company after the customer having paid for the tickets to the agent. (This information comes from the travel agency website in China: www.ctrip.com). Also, customer getting the feedback information is cost much time. The process in the to-be model is getting and processing information in the integrate database. Thus, customer buy tickets from the airline association (through the website) are same to buy the tickets from the airline company directly. Therefore, comparing with the as-is process, the to-be process can reduce much time for client wait for the tickets.

1.1. AS-IS Behavior Model

The As-Is behavior model of tickets selling process is shown in Figure 4 and Figure 5, and it describes from an agent’s perspective. The beginning of the process started from contacting airline agent. There are two ways to contact the agent. One is making a call to an agent, and the other is visiting the airline website. After the agent gets the customer’s order, the order information and customer data will send to airline. And then, the agent and customer should wait for the airline processing the information and giving feedback, which costs lots of time. After the agent gets the feedback from airline, they will print out the paper tickets and hand over to the customer. The process above is our AS-IS model and it is drawn as the figure shown below.

Figure 4. Level 1 AS-IS Behavior Model (from customer viewpoint)

(a)

(b)

Figure 5. Level 2 AS-IS Behavior Model (from customer viewpoint)

1.2. To-Be Behavior model

By using e-enterprise integration concept into practice, I expect that we could omit the time spent on the information delivery between agent and airline, that is, the "send information to Airline" step and the "Wait for feedback" step of the deal process in Figure 4. So, I want to make customer contact with the airline directly. Also, the customers can use website to make order and airline can use website to give some e-tickets instead of paper tickets. Moreover, using website not only save the time of selling flight tickets (the cycle time of a ticket been sold is decreased), but also reduce the time of a customer wait for the tickets (the ticket information can feedback to customer nearly in a second through the web network). The process model can be improved as Figure 7.

Figure 6. Level 1 TO-BE Behavior Model (from airline association viewpoint)

(a)

(b)

Figure 7. Level 2 TO-BE Behavior Model (from airline association viewpoint)

1.3. Simulation of As-Is model and To-Be model

The parameter of three behavior models are showed in Table 1 with cost and time of each step, and the number in brackets is added value. It is worth mentioning that the time of a customer spent to reach tickets is ranged from 0.5 to 2 days in the As-Is behavior model, and I set the parameter mean of "Wait for feedback" step is 1 day in this case. What’s more, the time of a customer making an order is decreasing in the To-be model 2 because the airline association provides a convenient platform to compare, choose and buy flight tickets.

Table 1. A List of the Simulation Parameter for 3 Behavior Models Unit time: minute; Unit cost: NTD

As-Is Model To-be Model cost time cost time

Make a call 100(20) 1 100(20) 1 Visit the website 5(1) 0.1 5(1) 0.1

Show the quotation 10 5 5 1 (Customer) make an order 10 5 5 1

Send information to Airline 10 0.1 - - Wait for feedback 10 1 Day - - Print out the ticket 30 1 - -

Process and record information - - 10 1 Feedback to customer - - 10 0.1

The result of simulation is showed as Figure 8 and Figure 9.

(a)

(b)

Figure 8. Simulation for As-Is Behavior Model

(a)

(b)

Figure 9. Simulation for To-Be Behavior Model

By comparing the result of current (as-is model) and proposed models (to-be model), a table as Table 2 showed can be summarized. Also, I find that the cycle time and total of to-be model is less than the time of as-is model.

Table 2. Compare Table of Simulation Execution cost (NTD) Value added (NTD) Times (Hours) As-Is Model 845 29 241.882 To-Be Model 495 29 0.585

For this result of simulation, we can find that: 1. The execution cost of simulation is different. The as-is model is describing the cost

of the agent while the to-be model is describing the cost of airline association. And I wish to describe the two cost as the cost of who carry out the flight tickets selling process.

2. The cycle time of the as-is model is extremely large. The reason for this phenomenon is the large time of "feedback from airline" (as showed in the 6th row of Table 1). I set this parameter as “1 Day” because the substantial experience of waiting for the tickets information for two days and I had explained in the front of chapter 1.3.

2. Organization Model

Figure 10 and 11 presents the organization model of the tickets selling process. In my case study, we just discuss two departments under the corresponding organization, namely Sales Department and Information Department. The task of the Sales Department is to serve the customers while the task of the Information Department is delivery tickets information in the organization. Figure 10 shows the As-Is organization model and Figure 11 shows the To-Be organization model. Three of the organization model are very similar apparently, but the scale of three organizations is totally different. A staff (a seller or operator) in As-Is model only can serve one customer at the same time, but one staff in To-Be model can serve more customer at the same time.

Figure 10. As-Is Organization Model

Figure 12. To-Be Organization Model

3. Object Model and SQL Database

For the As-Is object model showed in Figure 12, the selling process only has customer information and flight tickets data to deal with, so there’re three data sheets in this object model which showed as the figure.

Figure 12. As-Is Object Model

As for the To-Be process, I only establish the case for the website booking although there is a way to make order by telephone because it familiar with the As-Is object model. The To-Be Object model is showed as Figure 13.

Figure 13. To-Be Object Model

Based on the former object model (Figure 13), I wish to establish a network platform

for flight tickets information. There are two entrances in our website, which are for the customer and the airline (airline association) staff. Thus, I build a SQL database to save the records of customer information and tickets data.

4. Website Interface

This research provides techniques of searching, comparing, and booking flight tickets from airline association website platforms. Flight tickets selling website may be very difficult to build completely, so this tickets selling website emphasizes that the normally and basic flight tickets booking process. The research presents two kinds of entrances in our website, which are the interface for the customer and the airline (airline association) staff. Besides, the tickets website provides the same booking process for both members and guests. And airline association tickets selling website named “AirTickets.com”.

4.1. The Home Page of AirTickets.com

The Home page of the airline association (AirTickets.com) is showed as Figure 14. The home page can be divided into three parts: “Member Login (include administrator and member) ”, “Ticket Searching” and “Advertisement”.

Login

Advertisement

Tickets Searching

Figure 14. The home page of AirTickets.com

4.2. The Interface for Customer

Tickets Booking process through the website is showed in Figure 15 and 16. Figure 15 is the process of a member booking tickets, while Figure 16 is the process of a guest booking tickets.

Enter Username and Password

Booking Tickets

Go to My Cart

Enter the Depart and Return Time

Finish booking

Enter Quantity

Conform the information

Figure 15. The process of member booking tickets through AirTickets.com

The flight tickets booking process for a customer without a website account are showed as Figure 16. They can search the flight tickets information, and then, booking the flight as the steps showed in the figure.

Searching Tickets Information

Booking Tickets

Go to My Cart

Enter Quantity

Enter the Depart and Return Time

Conform the information

Finish booking

Figure 16. The process of guest booking tickets through AirTickets.com

4.3. The Interface for Administrator

There is a special account for every airline staff to revise their tickets information in the website. In the administrator interface, the airline staffs can check the customer information (member list) who had booked their company flight tickets. Also, they can check the order list. And they can add and amend flight tickets information. The function of administrator interface is showed as Figure 17.

Log in Administrator

Account

Memberlist

OrderlistRe

vise

Add

Figure 17. The process of Administrator revise information through AirTickets.com

5. XML File

The Order information can be performed in XML file, which showed as Figure 18 and 19. The XML consist of the passenger information, the flight tickets information and total price of the order.

Figure 18. The order information through XML file

Moreover, in order to preform the order data clearly for the customers, I design a sheet to preform the XML data in HTML page, showed as Figure 20.

Figure 19. Perform XML in HTML

6. Conclusion

In my final report, improved flight tickets selling process have an user-oriented interface to enhance the customer convenience, satisfaction and shorten the time of booking tickets. In the airline association website, customers do not have to spend much time on searching and booking the tickets they want. For each airline company staffs, they can easily know the order information and revise their tickets information. On top of that, the to-be process and the website not only enhances the convenience and satisfaction, but also reduces the average cycle time. And I hope my website system can be upload online some day because it can really reduce the costs and save time.