Mercator, a unit of Dubai-based Emirates Group, has signed a deal with Kazakhstan’s flag carrier Air Astana.

Under the deal, Mercator will offer CRIS frequent flyer and customer relationship management solution to Air Astana, the company said in a statement.

“CRIS will power ‘Nomad Club’, Air Astana’s frequent flyer programme, and will offer members an extensive range of innovative, appealing and user-friendly features,”it added.

Nomad Club members will be able to access CRIS functionality via Air Astana’s website www.astana.com. The system’s extensive customer relationship functionality will allow timely access to quality passenger information, which will help Air Astana to better understand their customers and deliver services to match their customer expectation.

“We are currently experiencing rapid growth and Air Astana is becoming a major player in the CIS region. Nomad Club will continue to foster our setting of quality standards and will further augment our goal of establishing the Air Astana website as ‘a one-stop Travel Shop for Kazakhstan,’” said Air Astana Vice-President for Sales and Marketing Ashendra Liyanage.

“CRIS will be one of the key enablers for the success of Nomad Club and we’re looking forward to launching this to our customers in December 2007. We are confident that it will give us a key competitive advantage.”

“We are very pleased that Air Astana chose Mercator for enabling this business critical solution. We see this as the beginning of an important relationship for us that will grow with time,” said Patrick Naef, head of Mercator and divisional senior vice-president IT, Emirates Group.

"CRIS will assist Air Astana in identifying their valued customers and meeting their specific needs. The solution is already managing millions of frequent flyer accounts in customer airlines around the world, adding value to their customer service and to their commercial success,” he added.

Air Astana is a joint venture between the government of Kazakhstan and BAE Systems. It operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 40 domestic and international destinations across Europe and Asia. – TradeArabia News Service