Setting standards

Despite having launched in the midst of an economic downturn Kuwait’s Wataniya Airways has already smashed its own targets and is now expanding to Europe. Business Management met the airline’s CIO Chandrasekhar Nene to find out how technology is supporting its ambitious expansion plans.

“The quality of the calls is so good that the person on the other end of the line would never know you are talking to them from hundreds of miles up in the air”
-Chandrasekhar Nene

The timing of Wataniya Airways' launch one year ago could not have been worse. It collided head-on with the worldwide economic downturn and for an airline providing premium only services, this could only spell disaster. But there was no sign of gloom on the horizon at the Kuwait-based airline's first anniversary celebrations. In fact the carrier issued a jubilant press release celebrating the fact that within its first year it has carried a quarter of a million passengers, has already launched a frequent flyer programme and planned to purchase a further three aircraft in 2010 bringing its fleet size to seven.

Unique selling points

The airline's CIO Chandrasekhar Nene puts the airline's surprising success down to the fact that its passengers - or guests as he likes to refer to them - have a very different experience onboard a Wataniya Aircraft compared to rival carriers. For a start, Wataniya's Airbus 320 aircraft only carry 122 passengers and even the economy seats are of  the "premium variety". The airline also operates from its own exclusive terminal, the Sheikh Saad Terminal in Kuwait International Airport, which means its customers don't face lengthy queues to get through passport control. The biggest difference however, is the fact that it is one of the world's only commercial airlines to allow passengers to use their mobile phones onboard - a service Nene describes as a "big hit". "This is not only unusual but it's a very big hit with our business travellers because they like to be in touch when they are flying and it really helps them out a lot. It means they are never out of touch with their offices. It's a big differentiator. Lots of travellers say 'my goodness why don't others (airlines) do that'. It's a required thing in today's business climate." In order to facilitate the use of mobile phones onboard flights, Wataniya's planes are equipped with an antenna which is linked to satellites around the earth that then bounce the signal back to the passenger's service provider. "The quality of the calls is so good that the person on the other end of the line would never know you are talking to them from hundreds of miles up in the air," says Nene. He goes on to say that the annoyance factor of passengers chatting on mobile phones has not so far proven to be a problem: "We had apprehensions that when people started talking loudly others would not be happy but that has not happened. You have to believe in the guests also. They know they are in an enclosed space so they talk softly. Plus they often just use chat or email anyway which doesn't make any noise."

Expansion plans

Earlier this year, the airline relaunched its website, as part of its aim to attract more online bookings. The site, www.wataniyaairways.com now has a new look and allows passengers not only to book and check in online but to chat with the airline's travel consultants to get instant answers to questions about their reservations. Currently, says Nene, around 25 percent of flights are booked online. However the airline aims for 40 percent of tickets to be eventually booked via the website. He says however, that there still remains a high demand for telephone or over the counter bookings: "The target is to take it up to 40 percent by about the second quarter. But I'm not very glued into targets. It's more important for us to monitor the way bookings are made. Because there is another aspect to this. When you book through a travel agent, for example, if you are a corporate traveller, you get service also, whereas on the web you only get a limited service. Corporate travellers are probably less concerned about controlling their own travel experience and would prefer for a travel agent to ensure the booking is to their satisfaction and then to facilitate any changes that need to be made." Nene adds that to back up his theory, the bulk of online bookings are currently made by leisure not business travellers.

Wataniya's website is however a work in progress and must be continually updated as the airline adds new destinations to its rapidly expanding network. The airline currently flies to eight destinations across the Middle East and there are plans this year for it to enter Europe with the first destination being Istanbul. Nene's job is to ensure that the IT infrastructure is in place to support the airline's operations and booking-in procedures to support the Sabre reservations system are in place at each new airport it flies to. "The service levels and availability of IT support is different in each area. I have to make sure that in each market I have a good partner to provide service. Like in any other business the most important aspect is the booking in. One side of this is the website which we see, the other is the whole Sabre mainframe which is located in the US which does the back end work. I have to make sure that the Sabre system is available in all the destinations to which we fly and that it should be accessible to all travel agents wherever they are located," says Nene. This, he says, can be a challenge, at destinations with less sophisticated IT infrastructures or at already overcrowded airports: "We are more vulnerable in some airports which have not been expanded and where getting a good communication line can be difficult because the airport is already at full capacity. There are two different problems you can face. One is the availability of physical resources such as telephone lines and network lines. The other issue is the availability of human resources. I send people from the head office to work on the installation and starting up of new offices. IT support later on though is a challenge. I make contacts with some local companies there but for specialised help I might supply one of my experts to that station."

Nene's job is made ever more complex by the fact that the very process of starting flights to a new destinations is further complicated by the process of gaining permission from civil aviation authorities and co-ordinating arrival and departure slots. "It's very difficult to get a slot. And apart from that you have to make sure that whatever slot you are getting fits into your schedule so that your aircraft can be utilised to the maximum."

Succeeding against the odds

The ever-expanding Wataniya network is all the more impressive given the pressures of the economic downturn. Nene admits that the airline was affected by the crisis but says it made a good enough first impression on passengers to see it through the crisis: "If I said we were not affected I would not be telling the truth. Every business has been affected and Wataniya was affected a little more because it was a premium service carrier. In recessionary times this always takes a hit. But fortunately, by the time it had happened, Wataniya had made a name for itself and people had started to choose it for its quality. We also dropped our fares to make sure we were in line with the inflationary situation. He goes on to say that the airline's plans to increase the size of its fleet were not affected by the downturn and that it is still on track to purchase an additional three aircraft. He is however in a situation where he is being required to make cost savings while maintaining the airline's quality of service for passengers: "What has really changed is that we are in the process of really tightening our belts. My biggest challenge is cost control and quality maintenance. I want to get the same or better quality at a reduced cost." As part of this process he and his department are reassessing existing outsourcing contracts to work out where savings can be made: "There are only seven people in this department so we do a lot of things by outsourcing. I have asked these outsourcing partners to redraw their contracts so that we can get the same or better service at a lesser cost. It is tough but it makes the job interesting."

The next big IT job on Nene's list is to create a data warehouse in which to store customer data and therefore improve customer relationship management. This is particularly important given the airline's frequent flyer programme: "We launched the programme in our first year of operation. Airlines usually wait until they've done three to five years of business first. Our current focus is to make sure we provide an exclusive service to our passengers. We use the database to work out exactly the services that our frequent travellers want.  I want to reach a stage where we greet guests at the airport and on board by their name and according to their previous details. We are in the process of creating that data warehouse then utilising it for the best customer relationship management that we can."

And in an industry where the customer comes first - particularly in such a tough economic climate - Nene and his team must work than ever to ensure these frequent flyers keep coming back for more.

The Wataniya story

The idea for Wataniya Airways was first conceived following the liberalisation of aviation services in Kuwait by the government in 2005. It was funded through the proceeds of an IPO launched in 2006. The aim was to provide a premium services for travellers flying from an exclusive terminal at the Sheikh Saad Terminal, which provides personalised check-in services and fast track immigration procedures. The airline currently flies to eight destinations; Kuwait, Dubai, Bahrain, Beirut, Cairo, Jeddah, Damascus and Sharm El Sheikh.

The Chairman of the airline is Abdul Salam Mohamed Ahmed Al Bahar, who joined the Wataniya board in 2006. Prior to this he was a board member of several organisations including Tamdeen Real Estate Company, Wataniya Telecom, Bank of Bahrain and the Middle East and Tunis International Bank.