MAS launches new mobile application – FlyMas.mobi
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Kuala Lumpur (8 December 2009): Malaysia Airlines today announced the launch of MHmobile – flymas.mobi -the most comprehensive menu of mobile phone functionality available to airline passengers anywhere in the world.
Developed together with SITA Lab, flymas.mobi offers more choices and convenience to the airline’s 14 million passengers by allowing them to book, pay, and check-in and board their flight simply using their mobile phone. In a world first, it also harnesses the capabilities of smart phones to offer passengers context-aware services using geolocalisation.
It is also the first mobile airline application which connects bookings to Facebook, TripIt and Dopplr enabling friends and colleagues to be informed about each other’s travel plans.
In another major first, it allows passengers to check the status of a delayed bag using flymas.mobi because the application can link to SITA’s WorldTracer, the industry-standard, fully-automated system for tracing lost and mishandled passenger baggage used by over 440 airlines and ground-handling companies worldwide.
Sneak previews of the web application have meant that it is already a success with Malaysia Airlines customers who have been flocking to flymas.mobi ever since news of the application’s existence started to circulate in Kuala Lumpur two weeks ago. In advance of today’s official launch, page hits have been averaging over 5,000 per day.
Recently, Phase 2 of the Passenger Services System (PSS), the cutover to the new SITA Reservations system, was successfully concluded. With over RM480 million invested on an integrated platform over 10 years, Malaysia Airlines customers can enjoy seamless service delivery and a suite of new services which include mobile.
Malaysia Airlines Managing Director/CEO, Tengku Dato’ Azmil Zahruddin, said: “As a global carrier, we understand the importance of embracing new technologies to ensure that our passengers enjoy seamless service. We took a strategic decision to partner with SITA Lab to develop an application which would go beyond anything that exists on the market today.
“We did not want to simply miniaturise our web site for use on mobile phones but instead created an offering based on one web application, one link and one click with no download required. Our mobile services had to work well on all web-enabled mobile phones.
“flymas.mobi is comprehensive and the complexity of what has been achieved is hidden behind an interface that is friendly and very easy to use. Passengers can book and hold their flights. Pay for them. Receive a 2D boarding pass after check-in. Check flight status and timetable. If a bag is delayed that can also be followed up using flymas.mobi. We can also directly offer travellers special mobile deals based on their actual location.
“So what it means to customers is that they can now easily book, buy or fly with Malaysia Airlines anywhere and at anytime, just as long as they have a web-enabled mobile phone,” he added.
Jim Peters, SITA’s Chief Technology Officer and Head of SITA Lab, said: “Our research group, SITA Lab, worked very closely with the team in Malaysia Airlines and today flymas.mobi provides complete control of the journey to passengers using any web-enabled mobile device.
“What we have done is to ‘mobilize’ functionalities instead of miniaturizing them. The focus is on streamlining the passenger journey with eight menu items only. The user interface is optimized for all major mobile operating systems and most mobile devices on the market. Minimal data entry is required. With flymas.mobi, all the content is rendered to ensure a ‘fit’ on the passenger’s mobile screen regardless of the device being used.”
All major operating systems and manufacturers are supported including Blackberry (RIM), the iPhone, Android Google phone, Symbian (Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson) and Windows Mobile (HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson). flymas.mobi supports any screen above 128 pixels.
In conjunction with the launch of flymas.mobi, Malaysia Airlines will enter into a marketing partnership with Maxis Berhad as telco partner. From 8 to 31 December 2009, customers who purchase a first class or business class ticket will receive a complimentary iPhone (terms and conditions apply) while Economy class customers stand to win 10 iPhones via lucky draw.
At the launch event today, Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke, Chief Operating Officer of Maxis Berhad said, “Maxis continually looks out for opportunities that enable our customers to enjoy mobility and convenience in areas that are important to them such as family life or business. We are pleased to be working with Malaysia Airlines to drive innovative mobile transactions for travel, leveraging on Maxis’ extensive high speed networks.”
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