The Lodges each transport their guests to and from private airstrip for their incoming or outgoing Federal Air flights.

Because the lodges are servicing the top end of tourist market, they need to provide top end service. So the Lodges need to know exactly when the FedAir flight will arrive so that they will be there to fetch them.

Guests with pale complexions sitting in the midday sun, with no ranger to ward off the approaching lions, are seldom in a good mood when arriving at their lodge. Similarly they don't take a good message to their friends back home when, after spending all their money at the Lodge, they are dropped off and left sweltering in the sun with no one to shoo away the elephants.

Previously for each flight, Federal Air control (Joburg) would have to make numerous calls to each lodge during flight to keep them informed of arrival/departure times.

This manual telephoning of up to 50 lodges was tedious and occasionally resulted in guests being offered less than perfect service!

The Solution

Gencentric implemented a feature on the FedAir web portal to update the arrival times for each flight. Then automatically, depending on which Lodges has clients on board, the system SMS's the lodges of the new arrival times, thus ensuring that guests are always greeted on time.

The Results

Federal Air has seen significant improvements not only in terms of internal efficiencies, but also in terms of relations with existing clients because of the improved efficiency of being advised timeously. Gencentric now also plans to use SMS functionality in the development of the logistics module for Federal Air i.e. in planning or aircraft movements, advising pilots of duties, cargo manifestos etc.