Mobile technology vital for African air travel!

Mobile technology has a vital role to play in the growth of African airlines, according to Paul Murphy, Vice President of airline information technology company, SITA.

He was speaking during the 44th Annual General Assembly of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) taking place at the Sandton Convention Centre on November 19.

He said Africa, with its already huge penetration of mobile phones and services, was an ideal platform for airlines and airports to adopt and deploy mobile applications with ease.

“The number of passengers with smartphones worldwide has risen dramatically over the past year, from 54% to 70%. We are already seeing the impact at airports with mobile check-in increasing by one-third during this period and as many as 21% of passengers have now used a mobile boarding pass. We’re currently at the tipping point of explosive growth in the mobile services offered to passengers, which will give them more control over their journey as well as do much to reduce stress.”

According to SITA’s 2012 Airline IT Trends survey, mobile services for passengers are currently a top investment priority for airlines.

“Mobile apps are already being used on other continents to improve the passenger experience, reduce operating costs and generate revenue, and are being adopted across sales, customer services and passenger processing.”

However, he said cost was a key consideration, and explained how packaged community solutions would serve to spearhead development within the African airline industry.

“SITA has been working with AFRAA on a number of packaged community solutions that can be adopted by groups of airlines for shared benefits. One of these is cloud computing, which will dramatically reduce the total cost of ownership for airlines.”

He added that SITA was also investigating the opportunity, jointly with AFRAA, of the viability of a shared African airlines contact centre.

“With human interaction still forming a vital role on the African continent, we will be examining ways to centralise data storage and customer interaction, thereby serving to reduce these costs for individual airlines.”

Another factor hampering development is the lack of collaboration between the different stakeholders. However Murphy said he was confident SITA could assist in creating a crossroads solution between separate entities such as government agencies, airports and airlines.

Please Help the Sparrow Rainbow Village HIV/AIDS Hospice and Children’s Home

Hi Everyone

We are appealing for assistance from caring, compassionate donors who can afford to donate R25.00 to help us provide the basic needs of the orphaned children in our care.

The Sparrow Rainbow Village HIV/AIDS Hospice and Children’s Home in Maraisburg, celebrated its 20^th Birthday in February this year.

The Village, when established, was the first its kind in the World and has been responsible for saving the lives of 1000’s of patients that have admitted into the highly rated facilities, receiving the FREE OF CHARGE 24hr medical care provided with love by our trained, dedicated nursing staff and doctors.

Sadly however, many patients waited too long to get help and despite all our efforts trying to save them, they died, leaving their now orphaned children in our care. Together with the other Children placed into our home by the South African Courts and Social Services, we have nearly 250 orphaned children, totally dependent on Sparrow Ministries for all their basic requirements, including education, clothing, meals, housing, medical and emotional needs.

As you can imagine, caring for this number of children is a huge task and being 100% dependent on donations, very few of them have had the experience of receiving new shoes, clothing or even a birthday present.

With his in mind we are appealing to all individuals, Business and Companies receiving this email to request their friends, family members and customers to donate R25.00 in lieu of Birthday or Christmas cards to the Children’s Home, so that we may raise sufficient funding to purchase each of our children a new pair of school shoes or even just for once, take a child shopping on their birthday and allow them to choose a new clothing item of their choice.

 

DONATING THE R25.00 IS SO EASY AND SIMPLE

SIMPLY SMS THE WORD “CARE” TO 41423 AND SPARROW WILL RECEIVE 100 % OF THE R25.00 THAT IS CHARGED TO YOUR AIRTIME WITHOUT ANY DEDUCTIONS OR CHARGES BY THE CELL PHONE NETWORKS.

 

SMS  THE WORD “ CARE”  TO NUMBER    41423   

 

Together with donations from other donors responding to this appeal, your R25.00 donation will have a major impact on the lives of the children in our care.

 

If you doubt that this is a legitimate request then please contact Sparrow Ministries for confirmation.     

 

I also will appreciate it if everyone receiving this would please pass it on to their own personal contact list, asking your friends, contacts and family to assist us in this very worthy cause.

 

Kindest Regards

Robert Miller

Fundraiser

Cell No 0827876997