The lure of building IT applications for a start-up airline Interview with Tim Ricketts, vice-president - Information Technology, RAK Airways |
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Two decades of experience plus a fruitful sojourn in any domain is surely a fulfilling proposition. But even then answering a query like `What next?’ can be a tricky one. Tim Ricketts seems to have answered that rather well. When a chance to work for a start-up airline in RAK Airways as vice-president – information technology came his way, he grabbed the opportunity. The IT professional, who has been associated with the likes of IBM, Sabre and The Emirates Group over the years, is quite excited about his latest assignment. In the aviation industry since 1995, he has been involved with the start-up of Mercator, the IT division of the Emirates Group. “I stayed in contact with many people and was approached by the team that were starting RAK Airways to be their VP of Information Technology,” Ricketts says. These days he is diligently working towards making the latest venture a profitable one. |
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RAK Airways is the fourth national airline of the United Arab Emirates, established in February 2006 under an Emiri Decree by H.H. Sheikh Saqr bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah. Ras Al Khaimah, located at the north end of the coast of the Arabian Gulf, is one of the seven Emirates that form the United Arab Emirates. Ras Al Khaimah is nestled between the Hajjar Mountains on the East and the Arabian Gulf on the West and shares mountainous borders with the Sultanate of Oman. RAK Airways would initially operate a fleet of eight aircrafts and negotiations have been on with Airbus Industries and Boeing for acquiring the aircrafts. It proposes to undertake flights to India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon and GCC countries initially. “We want to make sure we have a successful launch in the first quarter of next year,” says Ricketts. He adds, “The key from a commercial point of view will be to have the airline available for sale via the different channels in good time to support the launch date. The operational systems will also have to be in place to support flight operations, crewing etc. so this means a lot of work for the next few months. Over the year we will be looking into fleet and network expansion along the lines already outlined - by taking practical decisions based on the development of Ras Al Khaimah developing a sustainable, profitable airline.” Speaking to Airline Information’s Ritesh Gupta ahead of Airline Information’s eConference 2006, scheduled to take place in Muscat on November 8 and 9, Ricketts outlined his airline’s plans and the development of IT applications. Excerpts: Ritesh Gupta: When plans for RAK Airways emerged, why did you take this assignment and what’s your vision as far as the technology part of operations is concerned? Tim Ricketts: I was very excited to be associated with a startup airline - it is not often you get to start operations from scratch. This means no legacy IT applications, or business processes designed around outdated technology. While we don’t want technology for tecnology’s sake, we want to deliver the cost efficiency and customer service that is possible using modern infrastructure and applications.
Ritesh Gupta: What’s your opinion on the timing of the launch of the airline? How do you assess current business environment for the airline? Tim Ricketts: RAK Airways will be a vital component of the economic development of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah. Ambitious plans are in place to develop industrial, commerical, residential and tourist projects that will attract business people and tourists, as well as a growing resident population in the Emirate. It is never possible to say with precision what is the right time to launch but I believe that to start RAK Airways early in the development of Ras Al Khaimah is the right move, rather than wait for others to develop the market.
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Ritesh Gupta: Ras Al Khaimah is to launch the UAE’s fourth national carrier, RAK Airways by the end of 2006. What is going to be key offering in terms of positiong and pricing? Tim Ricketts: RAK Airways will be a network carrier offering a full service product at a competitive price. We will not be following the full low cost carrier model. We believe this will offer passengers a choice of direct air services from destinations that currently involve a stop or a long ground transportation segment to Ras Al Khaimah. An important factor is the refurbishment of RAK International Airport with an emphasis on ease of use and speed of operation such that passengers will notice a real difference compared to the regions other, much more crowded airports.
Ritesh Gupta: The airline would initially operate a fleet of eight aircrafts, for which negotiations were on with Airbus Industries and Boeing for acquiring the aircrafts. Has the deal been finalised? Tim Ricketts: We have finalised a deal for the first aircraft. Others will follow in due course.
Ritesh Gupta: RAK Airways had proposed to undertake flights to India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon and GCC countries initially. What is going to be RAK Airways’ strategic route planning and how are you going to develop the hub for the airline? Tim Ricketts: RAK Airways will develop a mix of scheduled and charter services over the next few years to reflect the demand patterns of the local economy. We do not want to compete with the other much larger regional carriers providing connecting services through RAK. The airline is designed to cater to the needs of the local economy, and will grow and expand as the Emirate develops.
Ritesh Gupta: Coming to the technology part, what is going to be your focus? How do you intend to make operations smooth internally and consumer-friendly with the aid of technology? Tim Ricketts: RAK Airways will use a mix of distribution channels appropriate to a full service carrier. Our reservations system is unique in being a modern system that caters to all of the distribution channels namely consumer web booking, travel agency and call centre as well as GDS connectivity. All of the systems designed for low cost carriers that we evaluated were lacking in certain areas of connectivity and the legacy hosted applications were lacking in functionality of their web booking capability. We will therefore have an application that will deliver a seamless booking experience to our passengers regardless of channel.
Ritesh Gupta: How much of technology is being developed in-house and what all are you outsourcing? Tim Ricketts: We are not focussing on developing our own solutions however we are putting in place a robust IT infrastructure that could be extended to host applications internally, or even to provide managed IT services in future.
Ritesh Gupta:What have been key milestones to date from a technology perspective? Tim Ricketts: We have implemented the internal IT infrastructure and telecommunications technology that gives us a scaleable platform as the airline grows. We have also selected the technology platform for RAK International Airport. The finanace, HR and payroll systems for both organisations are being implemented currently. We have identified an integrated solution for reservations, departure control, web booking and yield management and have also selected solutions for flight operations control, crew scheduling and flight planning. At the airport we have replaced the hosted Gulf Air DCS with an implementation of SITA’s SDCS system.
Ritesh Gupta: How do you intend to use technology for sales related to direct and indirect channels? Can you provide insight into the technical part related to channels such as web site, call centres, agents, city/airport ticket offices, etc.? Tim Ricketts: We will have a single integrated application running all distribution channels. We will implement e-ticketing where possible and are currently integrating with a local payment gateway to provide on-line payment services. We will use GDS distribution because we recognize that despite the increased cost of that channel, it does extend the reach of the airline and delivers higher value ticket sales that far outweigh the cost of distribution.
Ritesh Gupta: In order to broaden the appeal of online booking engines many airlines have worked hard to simplify their fare structure. How are you going about this? Tim Ricketts: As a start-up airline we do not have a legacy fare structure based on outdated rules and restrictions. Older airlines have always expanded their fare structures to meet new conditions but rarely deleted old fares, leading to a situation where they had maybe thousands of fares, most of which were rarely used. We are able to start with a clean fare structure which will be based on our analysis of current market pricing by the competition, with our own yield management system that will take into account seasonality, historics etc.
Ritesh Gupta: Airlines are embracing new Internet Protocol (IP) and wireless-based technologies that underpin applications, such as e-ticketing and self-service kiosks. What’s your viewpoint on this? Tim Ricketts: Obviously the IATA deadline of 2007 for e-ticketing is driving the adoption by a lot of the world's airlines, apart from the obvious cost benefits. This is another area where being a start-up gives us an advantage - we can adopt the technology that is being successfully implemented by other airlines and learn from mistakes that have been made. The use of self-service kiosks for example is good to relieve congested airports however we will be offering a personal touch in Ras Al Khaimah as we believe in this region people want to deal with people, and we will have the capacity to provide a personalised service at the airport for some time before it becomes too busy. --
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