Pakistan International Airlines‘ (PIA) website just switched to a “new modern system” after 17 years. The management announced yesterday that HITIT had fully replaced Sabre airline and passenger management system. With this step, the airline aims to increase its online revenues through a more modern and robust reservation system.
The management has already transitioned to the new system, though the CEO of PIA hinted that there might be some bugs and errors initially and requested passengers to patiently reports any issues they find. A special notice on PIA’s website reads,
After 17 years, in order to provide you a better service, we are switching to a new modern system.
We are expecting a smooth transition. However, if there are any problems affecting your travel, please contact our hotline. Any inconvenience is regretted.
Pakistan International Airlines
According to some travel agents, the system is already facing issues. A report says that the new website has a number of bugs for some people, there’s no way to check booking information, and sometimes it fails to check seat availability. Other than that, consistent system crashes were also observed.
The agents cannot book on the new system; PNRs are being developed on Travelport/Gellaleo (another reservation system); CRC is unable to overbook flights; PHS is issuing manual boarding cards due to unavailability of the new system; stations abroad are having problems even in affixing signatures in the new system.
It might take some time before the new system stabilizes. These days, it is almost essential for a company or service to have useful and customer focused websites, as well as a functioning and robust back-end system software applications. The first thing most users and customers do before interacting with a company is visiting its website.
PIA should have properly tested the system before rolling it out for the public. Once again, a small mistake is resulting in negative publicity for the national flag carrier.
Image Source: PIA
