Oman Air launches new website design

The web sites of airlines are ever more becoming their most important marketing opportunity, in some cases accounting for more than half of ticket sales.

Airlines are discovering that by redesigning their Websites, they can cut costs, shore up the loyalty of business travelers, and even lure customers away from other travel sites. Airlines have come upon another way to cut costs and actually improve one area of service.

Mr. Habib Bin Bhacker Habib, Head of Information and Computing in Oman Air said, "As customer demand for on-line services increased in today's fast changing world, nothing can remain static. In view of this, Oman Air has changed, and is gearing towards its "Expect More" Campaign. Corporate website is no exception. The new home page and overall design has been upgraded to offer better services, information and convenience online booking."

He explained that the Home Page now relocates essential elements to right places for easy access. Customers can now check booking status right from home page without a need to search for this facility, adding that shortcuts feature direct access to frequently used services from home page. Now he said Sindbad Frequent Flyers could log on directly on home page to check the Sindbad FFP status and Sindbad Miles. Furthermore, Flight Schedules system has been overhauled and is directly integrated with daily updated industry standard SSIM file format. Users can easily save their daily, weekly, or seasonal schedules in PDF for later reference.

The Site has been perfectly launched to gear towards the new destinations. Coming soon more updated information will be added on Sindbad, Holidays, Information & Services for the new destinations, moreover desktop schedules for offline schedule tracking.

"Oman Air Website intends at making business travelers' online experience easier, also provides our customers with a valuable service. Many of the airlines' Web site initiatives are aimed at increasing, or regaining, business travelers' loyalty. Functionality, scheduling convenience, ease of use on the road anywhere in the world, these are all goals that will possibly increase revenue. The sites give airlines the ability to promote special fares and other offers," the Head of Information and Computing in Oman Air further added.

Corporate Communication and Media Department in Oman Air said that without a good Web site, Airlines have no chance of economically surviving. As international travel grows, airlines have also simplified the process of booking complicated schedules to just a few clicks - including travel with two airlines that are code-sharing partners. Oman Air which has recently launched its web ticket sales, sells nearly 10 percent of its tickets through its Web site. Our customers noted wanting two things: ease and speed. "Our customers told us they wanted it easier to be able to check in for a flight and book a flight online. Business travelers in general are people who are self-motivated, and they know what they want and where they want to go. The way is to improve the level of empowerment available to them online." In conclusion, they noted.

Oman Air Website has been awarded for the second consecutive year Gold Award in Travel & Tourism category for Oman Web Awards on February 16, 2007. The website has contested against more than 120 websites overall with more than 12 entries in Travel & Tourism category. This event has already been considered by the industry as one of the top award programs. The new look and feel under the initiative of Head of Information and Computing, Manager Software Projects and Webmaster, has been implemented by team at Aufait technologies ME.