AirAsia to shut down booking system for 3 days

Low-cost airline AirAsia Bhd will temporarily shut down its current booking system for three days starting tomorrow to replace it with a new system that can cope with the company’s current growth.

As part of the system implementation process, AirAsia’s booking services will be temporarily unavailable from 1pm tomorrow till 6pm on Sunday.

AirAsia regional head of commercial Kathleen Tan said guests were strongly encouraged to make bookings before 1pm tomorrow to avoid disappointment.

“The current system, which is a 20-year old system, cannot cope with our current growth. Previously, the system can only accommodate as high as half a million (bookings) a day. With the new system, it can book up to almost one million flights a day,” she told a media briefing here yesterday.

During the shutdown guests would not be able to book seats online at AirAsia sales offices and counters or through call centres. Self check-in would also be unavailable. — Bernama


This article appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, July 8, 2010.