RwandAir has partnered with MTN and TIGO, the two leading mobile operators to help travellers get information about flight schedules via mobile Short Message Services (SMS).

The service which will help reduce queues at the carrier’s selling offices will also help its travellers to get instant auto response with accurate flight details after sending their queries.

According to the company’s management, the service, which is already active in Rwanda on MTN and Tigo networks will be rolled out in phases to cover the entire East African networks and other networks on RwandAir destinations.

RwandAir’s Marketing and Corporate Communications Manager, Michael Otieno explained that to access the flight schedules, you send a word: RwandAir (space) destination to either 123 on MTN or 7333 on Tigo and you wait for the automatic response.

"We want to make it very convenient for our customers to know our flight schedule with the least effort by simply sending a text message to their network service provider and getting an instant, updated and accurate schedule,” Otieno said.

He also added that the moment this service is available in Rwanda on MTN and Tigo, the next phase of implementation will cover Burundi, Uganda and finally we will provide the service on Kenyan, South African and Tanzanian mobile networks.

The airline is in advanced stages on plans to implement an Internet Booking Engine with credit card payment facilities. This booking engine will later be optimized to allow for bookings via mobile phone handsets.

Meanwhile, the International Trade Fare which concluded yesterday, saw the national carrier gross over $150, 000 (Rwf87.3 million) in tickets sales. At the onset of the trade fair, RwandAir had announced discounts of between 20-50% on their entire network. 

"The carrier has extended the promotion of these fares to September 12, 2010 due to overwhelming demand from travellers,” management revealed.

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