The Hindu Business Line : NACIL to appoint consultant to align AI, Indian processes

Mumbai, May 4 In an effort to align the processes and systems of the erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines, and to bring them on par with Star Alliance standards, National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) plans to appoint a consultant for the same.

NACIL has floated a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking bids from interested parties across the globe to advise the company in “defining, upgrading and revamping of processes and systems in various areas of the commercial functioning in the airline”. This exercise by NACIL, called the ‘Commercial Transformation Project’ is only a part of the revamp plan for its commercial processes, systems and infrastructure.

According to the tender document, the company defines the commercial domain as the entire gamut of activities that cover product delivery, passenger handling and sales and marketing functions.

However, in this RFP, the company is looking for an expert to help it align reservations and ticketing, pre and post flight processes, call centre processes and management, passenger handling at airports, and frequent flyer programme and revenue management processes.

Officials at NACIL would not comment on the RFP.

Ongoing Processes

Mr Mark Martin, senior advisor, KPMG told Business Line, “Companies which are involved in operational transformation of airlines would be interested in the proposal.”

However, Mr Ankur Bhatia, Executive Director, Bird Group said, “Unless they (NACIL) get a common IT platform for the erstwhile AI and IA, any other business transformation would be futile.”

The airline is also in the process of finalising a vendor to replace the separate in-house legacy Passenger Services Systems (PSS) of AI and IA with a common Hosted PSS solution. NACIL is also in the process of joining the Star Alliance.

NACIL has invited proposals for technical and commercial bids for the purpose. The last date for submission of both the bids is June 18.