"We really have been very, very pleased with them." Malcolm Naylor CEO Air Southwest in Regional Airline World

AirKiosk System "Does What They Said It Would Do"

Playing on Air Southwest's airline code, Regional Airline World magazine says "WOW" about the carrier which has profited investors from its fifth month of operation and enjoys an average load factor above 76%. In the cover article, CEO Malcolm Naylor credits the AirKiosk system with contributing to "an exceptional three years."

Air Southwest has used the AirKiosk system since its start of operations in October 2003 to drive reservations and distribution in a highly successful business model. The partnership pairs two companies committed to giving customers high levels of service at a reasonable price.

"We find that the support service is superb," Naylor says of the AirKiosk system. "We really have been very, very pleased with them. It is a relatively low-cost system, and it does what they said it would do."

Air Southwest took a clean-slate approach to building its business. "I did not believe the old-fashioned regional airline model was sustainable going forward," Naylor explains in Regional Airline World. "It's distribution where you make a huge difference to the cost line." The result of this understanding is that 93% of Air Southwest bookings are made through its website. "We've been like that since the first few months after we started," Naylor says.

Citing a sale for every four visits to the Air Southwest website (a 25% look-to-book ratio), Naylor notes the importance to Air Southwest customers of the real-time AirKiosk Low Fare Finder. "We get alot of compliments about that."

The AirKiosk system's unique calendar-based fares display allows bookers to choose a date of travel based on Air Southwest's lowest available "Fares Fair" across a two month-range. Air Southwest's "Fares Fair" display tells customers what they will pay, inclusive of taxes, from the moment they consider booking a flight. Once an all-inclusive fare is booked in the AirKiosk system, the net fare vs. coded taxes breakdown is still clear in reports for revenue accounting.

Source: Regional Airline World

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