82% airlines on course for SIS compliance

Kale Consultant’s SIS Airline Preparedness Survey 2011 - Wave 2 shows that only 19% expect their systems to be SIS Compliant by the September 2011 deadline

Kale Consultants Ltd., a leading solutions provider to the airline and travel industry, today announced the results of its Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS) - Airline Preparedness Survey 2011. The survey shows that majority (82%) of respondents of the airlines have initiated and finalized their course of action and budgets for becoming SIS compliant. 82 respondents representing 66 airlines globally, participated in this survey.

Simplified Interline Settlement is an IATA initiative to streamline the Interline Settlement process. SIS project aims to standardize, facilitate and expedite interlines billing and settlement in the airline industry. The survey highlights that over the last 6 months the priority level for SIS compliance has certainly increased.The SIS Airline Preparedness Survey is a Kale initiative to assist the airline industry in its transition. Carrying forward from its learning in the first wave, Wave 2 is built on insights gathered from airline industry’s readiness for SIS. The survey includes 28% Director level and 72% Manager level respondents.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Mitul Mehta, Head - Marketing, Kale Consultants Ltd. said, “SIS is an ideal opportunity for an airline to relook at their systems and undertake significant business process re-engineering in order to derive the maximum benefits of this industry change. With these surveys Kale aims to assist airlines in mapping how their peers are approaching this change.”

The survey revealed that:

• 91% consider SIS compliance as high to very high priority
• Over 50% respondents are still not clear about the required system changes to become SIS compliant
• 64% respondents expressed the need for training to understand changes required for SIS compliance
• Over 50% of airlines are beyond Initiation and budget finalization stage of SIS readiness
• 19% respondents expect their system to be SIS compliant before September 2011

During the survey and related interactions with the industry it is found that airlines globally are approaching SIS compliance in various ways. From developing in-house solutions, dependence on vendors for changes, to outsourcing their interline requirements- the options available are multifold.

To receive a complimentary copy of the Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS): Airline Preparedness Survey Report, write to research@kaleconsultants.com.

The detailed survey also features:

• Regional status in terms of SIS preparedness
• Progress or status changes in SIS readiness over the last six months
• Preferred approaches for SIS compliance being considered by airlines globally

The Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS): Airline Preparedness Survey is an independent study conducted by Kale Consultants Ltd., to gauge the airline industry’s preparedness with regards to SIS. The study will be conducted at regular intervals, and will serve as an industry measure for transition to the Simplified Interline Settlement platform. Kale is the prime technology supplier for the development of IATA’s SIS platform – and intends to partner the industry in the successful rollout to derive maximum efficiencies from this initiative.About Simplified Interline Settlement:

Simplified Interline Settlement is an IATA initiative, aimed at the removal of paper from the billing and settlement process. IATA estimates that over 200 tons of invoices and supporting documents are being shipped between airlines around the world each year to support the airlines' interline billing and settlement process.

The SIS initiative envisages significant benefits and cost savings for airlines; from reduction in paper, postage, and courier fees to reduction in manpower cost associated with invoice registration, document preparation, document sorting and transaction level reconciliation. This initiative will also drive faster revenue recognition and better financial information for airlines

The SIS solution will encompass Passenger, Cargo, and Miscellaneous interline billings and entries to the IATA Clearing House (ICH) for settlements. The SIS project envisions:

• A completely paperless invoicing environment for prime billings and rejects for all carriers
• Process enhancements for FIRST & FINAL™ carriers to enable billing and settlement automatically at the time of ticket lift
• Integration of the IDEC (Interline Data Exchange Centre) passenger and cargo billing with ICH settlement on a weekly basis
• Expansion of the IDEC format with additional optional record types in order to support more billing items, such as rejects