Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), the flag carrier of the kingdom, has decided to migrate its mobile services to Dublin-based Mobile Travel Technologies (MTT) in order to better meet the demands of its mobile-centric customers.

The strategic partnership will see MTT, a leading mobile apps, mobile web and mobile technology products provider for airlines, delivering mobile apps for iPhone and Android as well as mobile Web offerings.

The new Saudia app aims to provide an authentic user experience in Arabic with enhanced right to left navigation, and as such MTT will make app design and local usability testing paramount during this development.

The apps will be rolled out in multiple phases, using agile development approach, to ensure quality and fast time to market. The initial stage of the project will include the iPhone app release with flight search, flight status and check-in functionalities as well as booking and payment capability.

The app will also integrate with MTT’s Intelligent Push Engine, MTT Engage, allowing Saudia to assist passengers with real time travel updates.

In addition to streamlining the user experience, Saudia and MTT plan to optimise their partnership to better serve customers in the Middle East.

Smartphone penetration in the region is amongst the highest in the world with mobile being the fastest growing platform. This new suite of mobile solutions created under the agreement will provide Saudia customers with an enhanced mobile experience at every point of their travel.

“New mobile apps are a strategic direction for Saudia to improve our services, expand customer reach and augment Saudia’s sales and service channels via mobile both to meet customer expectations and business goals,” said Muhammad Albakri, CFO and CIO of Saudia.

“We have chosen to partner with MTT to enable us to bring a different approach to mobile and we believe that MTT will deliver on our mobile aspirations. With its mobile travel platform, MTT has demonstrated the potential to become a cornerstone of Saudia’s ability to better serve its passengers in an intuitive and smart way.

"Saudia intends to continue growing its mobile based customer services using the MTT mobile platform to also enhance and ease the management of its customer relation processes,” he added.

Gerry Samuels, CEO of MTT, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Saudia as a highly valued customer. This contract is a significant endorsement of MTT’s expertise and innovative mobile travel products, which enable airlines to meet the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s always connected traveller. We look forward to a long standing and successful partnership with Saudia.”

As one of the largest carriers in the Middle East and member of the SkyTeam Alliance, Saudia operates more than 500 domestic and international flights daily to over 90 destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America. - TradeArabia News Service