Sky-high costs for Singapore Airlines site - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Sky-high costs for Singapore Airlines site

By Nawaz Marican, Special to ZDNet Asia
May 29, 2001
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Sky-high-costs-for-Singapore-Airlines-site/0,139023166,120225001,00.htm

Airline carrier Singapore Airlines has spent S$15 million since last August on its Web site, said its e-commerce vice president Walter Lee.

He said at the sidelines of a press conference yesterday that the investment to date includes the development of content management tools, acquisition of e-business infrastructure and the design of its Web site.

Lee said the S$15 million investment is part of a S$100 million e-commerce initiative to be implemented over a three-year period.

At a media conference yesterday, the airline launched a new service under SIA Mobile Services, which provides global flight alerts via short message service (SMS) to mobile phones and pagers worldwide. This service will inform customers of changes to flight departure and arrival schedules.

The flight alert service was first lunched in July 2000. Then, the alerts were only sent out via email and SMS to subscribers of local telecommunication operators.

US-based wireless data service provider Unimobile developed SIA's new service, the latter said in a statement.

Apart from mobile services, SIA's Web site also provides information on tourist attractions for all its 67 destinations, weather forecast, real-time currency exchange and time zone information.

These services are provided through a strategic partnership with companies such as Lonely Planet for travel information, Intellicast for weather information and Oanda for currency exchange, said Lee.

In the next six-to-nine months, the airline plans to include immigration and visa advice, airport information, dining and entertainment guides, events and business conferences, he added.

These new features will also be provided through a strategic partner, Lee said, without disclosing specifics.

SIA generated S$9.23 billion revenues and S$1.34 billion in net profit for its fiscal year ended March 2001. However, the company declined to reveal how much it earned online or any targets for the future.