CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Background of Study
Airline industry has always been famous for its continuous struggle: cutting costs, managing fluctuating demand, keeping up with tight quality requirements while trying to maintain superior services and satisfy needs of various customer groups. Customer satisfaction has been on very low levels for decades. According to American Customer Satisfaction Index, airline industry scores lowest out of 47 other industries. However, the demand for air transportation has been stable and despite current economic crisis and such events as September 11, the growth reached 7.8% in 2011 (Datamonitor, 2011).
In this struggling environment, airlines are forced to shift their focus towards customer oriented service quality (Chang & Yeh, 2002). It is extremely important for carriers not only to understand the perception of passengers of their service offerings, but as well find out what customers expect from the services (Chen & Chang, 2005) and what kind of services customers consider most important. In the airline industry, services are composed of very complex mix of intangibles as the airlines sell not physical objects but performances and experiences (Gursoy et al., 2005). Thus, service quality is a key to attract and keep loyal customers (Liou & Tzang, 2007; Chang & Yeh, 2002).
This project views service experience as a process, starting with a search for a ticket and ending with post-flight services. All the steps a customer is taking during air transportation are listed and discussed. Service quality is created on each step of the process, and it is important to understand the customer preferences and expectations from the services. Evaluation of customer expectations based on two to five key quality requirements and analyzed using statistical methods to understand its relative importance to a target customer group chosen for a survey.
Throughout commercial aerospace history, the timely movement of aircraft, passengers and cargo has required the even more timely movement of information. This was never truer than today, where information has become not just an operational tool, but a competitive weapon. To capitalize on this information, the technological revolution and the information society have brought us a dazzling set of capabilities. But, they have also brought us a bewildering array of options for services, costs, methods and products. Many managers find themselves faced with too much of a good thing, too many alternatives. But, aerospace today means business. Commerce and tourism are the engines of economic development in today’s world. In Aerospace industry, Airlines, airports, and even governments are competing against each other for travel related income. Staying in front means making investments in enhanced customer service tools, improved management awareness, quicker access to operational information, etc.
All of the technology and service options, and the need to make rapid, well informed decisions, means that many organizations are finding it increasingly difficult, and expensive, to find and retain staff to meet the demands. The effective use of customer Information management System can help solve this problem.
Customer Information Management System is a very powerful integrated computer-based system for managing the activities of an airline, or aircraft fleet operator so as to aid customers view airlines operational information online. The system can be used worldwide by large and small companies operating many types of fixed and rotary-wing aircraft.
Customer Information Management System will be used to collect, store, and analyze information about aircraft usage within the Aerospace industry. It is a Web-based application for entering and storing information from the Flight Use Report. Aircraft operation information is required to be reported by each Region. Aircraft operation statistics are entered into an Integrated Database, the database for aircraft use information.
Therefore, the Design and Implementation of Customer Information Management System will provide guidance and assistance to management in planning, developing and implementing the technical infrastructure necessary to compete in today’s aerospace industrial climate. However, there is more to it than simply selecting and applying the new system – it also requires knowledge and insight into the proper application of modern technology. This ‘proper application’ requires an understanding of how the technology fits the organization; how it affects, and is affected by, the users, the staff, and the management; what are its limitations and what restraints does it impose for the future.
- Statement of Problems
As aviation industry is expanding, a lot of airlines are coming up. The passengers need to book for their flight tickets. The manual method of going to their local offices to book for their flight ticket is becoming obsolete and tasking. Flight schedule information needs to be publicized to passengers. Hence there is need for a wide range of publicity and enabling direct information passage to the public.
The manual and poorly automated system lack immediate response to aerospace managers and other operators needs due to bureaucratic nature of the system.
Furthermore, the non-computerized system consumes a lot of stationaries like writing papers and is very cumbersome to operate.
Therefore, there is need for a forward looking, immediate response to domestic flight customer information management system.
- Objectives of the Study
The objective of the research project work is to build an online system for domestic flight customer information management system. The system developed will have the following as its objectives.
- Create an online system for customers to view all domestic flights operators in Nigeria.
- Create an online system for customers to view domestic flight schedule and their flight rate.
- Give online access to passenger’s suggestions or complaint on flight operations.
- Showcase flight maintenance information to customers
- Give passengers access to send their complaint about flight operations or services.
- Creates online news publication for flight operators accessible to customers.
- Makes available the number of flights operated by an airline.
- Maintain a robust database for flight information management
- Significance of the Study
This research study will enable us identify the problematic areas of the recent aerospace information systems and take corrective measures where necessary. It would also empower aerospace industry operators and stakeholders to appreciate the need for an effective and efficient information system.
The outcome of the study will contribute significantly to the development of Nigerian economy and the aerospace industry in particular. Information from the automated system will bring positive impact on the society, as the information system would definitely improve the living standard of the populace. The outcome of this study will also help the policy makers in their administrative work.
In view of the rapid development of computer technology in virtually all fields of operation and its use in relation to information management, it has become important to look into the development of flight customer information system to meet up with demands of the present day society. So, the system developed will also be beneficial to government, public and airline administrators in the following ways.
(a) Produce available operational reports when needed.
(b) Safeguard data and information in the system.
(c) Reduced workload in the present system.
(d) Keep accurate record on flight schedule
(e) Reduce time wasted in data processing.
(f) Keep accurate record on flight maintenance report
(e) Generate reports for public on customer complaints
This research can as well serve as a basis for further research. More so, any potential researcher can be assured of relevant and credible data to facilitate further research work.
- Scope of the Study
This project work will cover all aspect of flight schedule, customer complaint, flight tariff information, maintenance report, and airline operators’ information.
- Limitations of Study
The research scope was limited to a certain demographical group and only flights within geographical Nigeria were addressed in the survey.
Next, only flights operators that operates with EnuguAirport was reached during interview.
Also Customer information management system is a critical application, and it is functionally quite complex, therefore the development of the system is relatively expensive.
The research work is limited in various capacities:-
- The timeliness is guided by the time when the study was carried out. The time frame was too short for the research work.
- Only few airline industries in Nigeria could be approached physically and are included in the study. Most others that operate beyond the shores of this country could not be contact physically for necessary information.
- The procurement of classified documents from airline industry and the desired operators was a very difficult task.
- The cost and hazard involved in travelling on Nigerian roads searching for information.
- Definition of Terms
The following terms have been explained contextually to erase any confusion in this research work. The definitions of terms are the key words on which the topic revolves:-
ALTIMETER – An instrument used especially in aircraft for showing height above sea level.
INFORMATION – Information is data, or raw facts, shaped into useful form for human use.
SYSTEM – A system is a combination or arrangement of parts to form an integrated whole, working together to achieve specific tasks. A system includes an orderly arrangement according to some common principles or rules.
Subsystem – A complex system is difficult to comprehend when considered as a whole. Therefore, the system is decomposed or factored into subsystems.
IS – An information system (IS) is a set of interrelated components that collect or retrieve, process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization.
MIS– Management Information System is the system that stores and retrieve information and data, process them, and present them to the management as information to be used in making decision.
Black box – Black box in computer science is a unit whose internal structure is unknown but whose function is documented.
Black boxtesting – Black box testing is where the tester is presented with the specification of a component to be tested and uses this to derive the test cases.
Interface – An interface is a hardware device containing electronic components, which connects an I/O peripheral to the computer. An interface carries out the conversion process between the codes according whether data is being transferred to or from the peripheral.
Coupling – Coupling occurs when two different subsystems are connected very tightly, such that very close co-ordination is required between them. Such tight coupling places a heavy co-ordination and timing requirement on the two systems.
Decoupling – Decoupling reduces the need for communication and allow the subsystems to communicate on an exception basis.
ER Diagram –The Entity Relation(ER) diagram is drawn to have a better understanding of the whole scenario, it was used to conceptualize the phenomena, actions and interactions between various entities and to arrive at the specific requirements in a comprehensive manner.
FAAN – FederalAirport Authority of Nigeria
IATA – International Air Transport Association
ICAO – International Civil Aviation Organization
INTERNET- It is an enormous network that connects computers and other networks found through out the world.
DATABASE – A database is an organized collection of data, it is also a collection of records stored in a computer in a systematic way, so that a computer program can consult it to answer questions for better retrieval and sorting.
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