RwandAir and SITA have entered into various agreements that will see the national carrier acquire some key travel solutions. SITA, the global air transport IT Company will improve its service offering through better distribution and customer retention.Among these solutions include the SITA’s Consumer Online Reservations Service (SCORS) which will smooth the progress of ticket distribution on the RwandAir website with credit card payment facility. The system, which is in advanced stages of its implementation, is expected to go live in March 2011. The airline will also be getting the Horizon Frequent Flyer Program as part of its customer relationship management.According to RwandAir’s Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications Michael Otieno, the airline wants to make it convenient for customers to access their services by taking advantage of the Internet and emerging e-commerce applications. “The SITA online booking system will not only provide a new booking option for customers already familiar with our airline and its services, but also help us reach more international travelers around the world.” he says.Otieno also noted that the prospect of having the miles based reward program from SITA will not only help RwandAir recognize and reward their frequent fliers but will also be better placed to learn more about them and their travel needs.The world’s first airline booking engine was developed by SITA for BMI (then known as British Midland Airways) following SITA’s successful demonstration of a prototype at a technology conference in Washington in September 1995.From its foundation as Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques, SITA has aimed to bring together airlines’ existing air transport communications facilities. This allows organizations and the wider industry to take advantage of shared-infrastructure cost efficiencies.SITA has recently launched SITA Airfare, a comprehensive suite of applications and services that provides airlines IT solutions for managing, distributing, pricing and shopping for competitive airfares. It includes the innovative use of “robots” which constantly trawl the worldwide web to collect and analyze fare data.RwandAir serves all East African community capital cities with daily flights and it flies to Johannesburg and Dubai three times a week. The airline currently has a fleet of two Boeing 737-500, two Bombardier CRJ and a Dash 8 with two Boeing 737-800 joining the fleet in 2011. The carrier is aggressively growing its fleet to cater for its network expansion plans that will see it fly to more regional destinations including Brazzaville which will be operated three times a week on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.The company has up to eight airlines in Africa using its e-commerce and frequent flyer applications while most airports on the continent handle passengers using other SITA applications.