COMPUSOFT, An international journal of advanced computer technology, 7(6), June-2018 (Volume-VII, Issue-VI)

ISSN:2320-0790

A DISTRIBUTED AIRLINE RESERVATION SYSTEM

FOR NIGERIAN AIRLINE COMPANIES
Ele, B. I., Agana, M.A., Bukie, P. T.
Department of Computer Science
University of Calabar, Calabar
Cross River State, Nigeria

Abstract: This study focused on the development of a distributed airline reservation system that is capable of
resolving some problems of the existing system that include the difficulty to easily reschedule previously booked
flights online or transfer ownership of tickets from one user to the other without consulting office agents,
inability to support users who want to book and travel instantlyrather than the prior 72 hours booking before the
departure time, and also the inability of users to control their times of flight instead of choosing prescribed times
provided by the airline agents.Existing reservation systems, airline reservation systems and reservation
techniques were explicitly examined as a guide to the development of the new system. The system was designed
using the structured system analysis and design methodology (SSADM) and developed using PHP, JavaScript
and HTML as the programming languages, while the database was designed using MySQL. Case tools and data
flow diagram were used during the development process to simulate the process of airline reservation and ticket
booking. The system was tested using sample data collected from Aero Contractors and the outcome was a more
user-friendly airline reservation system capable of resolving the problems identified in the existing system.

Keywords: Airline, Reservation, Distributed, Booking

I. INTRODUCTION system of their flights. The implementation of this

1.1 Airline Reservation online system has created a major resource via the
The desire for improvement in fields like science internet for people who want to make reservations
and technology is a constant subject which has online without the hassle of meeting travel agents.
continually triggered lots of advancements [1]. This Also, this has ensured that reservations are not only
desire can be seen in all disciplines, and the airline generated by the staff of the airline, but also by any
industry which is a product of technology is not an travel agent using a global distribution system or
exception. The airline reservation systems were first other airlines that have a multilateral Interline
introduced in the late 1950s as simple standalone traffic agreement with the airline [3].
systems to control flight inventory, maintain flight
schedules, seat assignments and aircraft loading. A computer reservation system is a computerized
Today, modern airline reservation systems are system used to store and retrieve information, and
comprehensive suites of products to provide conduct transactions related to travelling. Computer
systems that assist with a variety of airline reservation systems are classified as Passenger
management tasks and meet the customer’s needs Service Systems (PSS) which handle a series of
from the time of initial reservation through the critical functions for the airline. For an airline, the
completion of the flight[2]. reservation system is a mission critical system that
should use the latest state of the art technology to
Over the years, the World Wide Web and the provide for all flight reservations on a robust
Internet have become tremendously popular with an platform, which is flexible and can be adapted to
increase in the number of industries that have any style of the airline [4].
incorporated a web based distributed approach in Airline Reservation Systems (ARS) used to be
interacting with their customers. As with these standalone systems. Each airline had its own
industries that have innovated, most airlines have system, disconnected from other airlines or ticket
also made provision for a distributed reservation agents, and usable only by a designated number of

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airline employees. Travel agents in the 1970s related items by travel agents, online reservation
pushed for access to the airlines' systems. Today, sites, and large corporations. The premier global
air travel information is linked, stored, and retrieved distribution systems were Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre,
by a network of Computer Reservations Systems and World span. They are owned and operated as
(CRS), accessible by multiple airlines, thereby joint ventures by major airlines, car rental
making the systems accessible to consumers companies, and hotel groups [9].
directly. These reservation portals and gateways on According to the author in [10], the
the web allow consumers to purchase tickets components of reservation information system
directly, select seats, and even book hotels and include hardware, software, data, people,
rental cars [5]. procedures and database.
ARS eventually evolved into the computer
reservations system (CRS).Computer Reservations 1.3 Advantages of Reservation Information
Systems (CRSs) are used for hosting airline seat System
inventory and seat reservation transactions [6]. Convenience: One advantage of booking a hotel,
This system is used for the reservations of a flight or car rental online is the convenience. Being
particular airline and interfaces with a global able to make all your travel plans on the Internet
distribution system (GDS) which supports travel means you can do it any time of the day or night at
agencies and other distribution channels in making home, or while you are on your lunch break at the
reservations for most major airlines in a single office. Customers on the go can even make
system. An airline direct distribution works with its reservations on their smartphones or tablets. There
reservation system as well as pushing out is no need for lengthy phone calls or visits to a
information to the GDS [7]. travel agency, with just a few minutes and a click of
Aero Contractors Company of Nigeria the mouse, you will have all your plans finalized
Limited, also known as Aero Contractors is a state- [11].
controlled Nigerian aviation company based at Changes and Cancelations: It is simple for
Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, travelers to change or cancel online reservations.
Lagos State, Nigeria. It was formed in 1959 and Instead of calling the hotel or airline and waiting for
officially registered in Nigeria in 1960. At that a customer service representative to help them
time, it was a wholly owned by Schreiner Airways through the process, booking online means you can
B. V. of the Netherlands; it became a company with do it wherever you have Internet access.
initially 40% Nigerian holding in 1973 and Customer Reviews: Making a reservation over the
subsequently 60% in 1976, anticipating the phone or at a travel agency does not allow you to
requirements of the Nigerian Enterprises Promotion check out what past customers have thought of
Decree of 1977, also known as the indigenization hotel chains or certain airlines. Another benefit of
decree [8]. making online reservations is being able to see
these customer reviews [12].
1.2 Reservation Information Systems
The airline reservations system was one of II. PROBLEM DEFINITION
the earliest changes to improve efficiency in the The current system of reservations is
airline industry. Airline reservation system though an online system but still has some
eventually evolved into the computer reservations inefficiency. These inefficiencies include the
system (CRS). Airline reservations system is a difficulty to easily reschedule previously booked
computerized system used to store and retrieve flights online, difficulty in transfer ownership of
information and conduct transactions related to air tickets from one user to the other without
travel. The systems was originally designed and consulting office agents, inability to support users
operated by airlines, but were later extended for the who want to book and travel instantly without
use of travel agencies [8]. going through the processes of manual pre-booking
Major airline reservation system 72 hours before the departure time, absence of a
operations that book and sell tickets for multiple Frequently Asked Question(FAQ) section to handle
airlines are known as Global Distribution Systems users’ queries users about flights and also the
(GDS). Airlines have disposed most of their direct inability of users to control their times of flight
holdings to dedicated GDS companies, who make instead of choosing prescribed time provided by the
their systems accessible to consumers through airline agent.
Internet gateways. Modern Global Distribution Also, most of the current reservation
Systems typically allow users to book hotel rooms systems are still manual, and are as a result slow,
and rental cars as well as airline tickets [3]. time consuming and can be difficult for each person
Global Distribution System (GDS) is a to book through office agents. This means that users
worldwide computerized reservation network used have to inquire about the tickets through phones
as a single point of access for reserving airline and this makes it difficult to correctly take down or
seats, hotel rooms, rental cars, and other travel remember all the details that provided through

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phone calls. It can be very difficult to calculate how should be dynamically determined based
many people registered and how many seats are on on the number of days, weeks or months
a particular online booking; or to keep customer before the date of the scheduled flight.
records, provide an online menu on flight
schedules, flight destinations and their prices, show IV. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
alternative links to other partner airlines and have a
page dedicated to customer queries and replies. The development methodology adopted for the
This necessitates the design of a distributed airline proposed system is a waterfall model. The
reservation system that is capable of facilitating the waterfall model proceeds from one phase to the
scheduling, rescheduling, transfer of flight tickets next in a sequential manner. It comprises of the
and effective use of flight information. following phases: requirements determination,
requirements analysis, system design,
III. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY implementation, testing and evaluation as shown
in figure 1.
The proposed system will enhance an efficient
ticket reservation system which will aid the
operations and activities of airline service
providers. The economy of the organization will be
affected positively because of the cost effectiveness
of the proposed system. The findings of this
research can also help the management of airline
service providers to increase the income generation
and smooth running of their everyday activities.
Also, it will bring about improvement as well as
provision of effective air transport services, Figure 1: The Proposed System DesignModel
allowing ticket reservation agents to have
unprecedented patronage.
The Distributed Airline Reservation System The waterfall methodology is adopted based on
(DARS) is a software application to assist an airline
with transactions related to making ticket the following reasons:
reservations, which include booking, reserving,
cancelling and rescheduling tickets. From the i. The study is a predictable one in which all
viewpoint of the airline, the system is to provide the the requirements are clearly defined and
following services amongst others: can be estimated accurately, to avoid
i. Minimize repetitive work done by the maintenance problem, the waterfall model
system administrator and reservation is used.
clerks; ii. The upfront investment is not risky to
ii. Maintain consistency among different make.
access modes, example by phone, by web, iii. The researchers focus their performance
at the information desk and across measures on delivery date and budget.
different physical locations. The users iv. The customer knows exactly what they
should be taken through the same steps by want by being able to accurately define all
the system as they go through in requirements and nothing changes other
conventional desk-reservation systems; than bug fixes.
iii. Maintain customer information in case of v. Progress is more easily measured, as the
emergency, example flight cancellation full scope of the work is known in
due to stormyweather. The data gotten can advance.
also be used by the airline company to
track customer’s preferences and travel 4.1 Analysis of the Existing Airline
patterns to serve them better, plan Reservation Systems
routesfor better marketing and efficient i. The manual airline reservation system
scheduling of flights; allows customers or passengers to fill
iv. Increase awareness among frequent forms manually and submit to the person
travelers about various special offers and in-charge of the process of assigning seats
discounts; to passengers. Most times, the officer in –
v. Minimize the number of vacant seats on a charge finds it difficult to assign the
flight and maximize flight capacity appropriate seat to the passengers and
utilization; sometimes one particular seat is assigned
vi. Maintain the capability to adopt a flexible to two passengers, or a duplicate of seats is
pricing policy. The price of the tickets assigned to one passenger, thereby causing

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a big problem and delay in flight. schedules, flight destinations and their prices, flight
ii. Whenever any requisition comes to the time, seat reservation, transfer of flight ownership,
counter for a ticket to be issued, the ticket an editing/updating features to edit stored customer
capacity is checked whether the required information, cancelling of flight reservations, SMS
quantity of the tickets is available or not. If alerts to notify booked flights or changes in flight
the required tickets are available, then the schedule, a FAQ section to clarify issues regarding
ticket is issued and an update to the the customer’s flight reservation and show
reservation information is done to the alternative links to other partner airlines.
ticket Issue Register.
iv. The quantity of tickets is manually The system was developed with functional and non-
checked regularly in other to ascertain if functional requirements.
there are missing tickets, if so, the process
of issuing the ticket is cancelled. If the fare 4.3.1 FunctionalRequirements
is increased or decreased, then changes are
made into the fare book. Also, if a new The following requirements are captured for the
flight is introduced, then an entry is made intended use of the system.
on a relevant book. This process also Useraccount: The registered user can directly do
applies to flight schedules. the booking of flights and if there is a new user, he
may register or he only sees the flight details. But
4.2 Limitations of the existing airline reservation for the reservation of a ticket,he must registerfirst.
systems Creation of new useraccount: When there is a
From the viewpoint of the airlinestaff and new customer, he/she should fill the form
users, the existing system has thefollowing containing fields like Name, Address and Contact
limitations: No. , Gender, Email id, User ID andPassword.
i. The system cannot minimize repetitive CheckingAvailability: To check the available
work done by the system administrator flight, the user should input the city where the flight
and reservationclerks. will take off from, destination city, the date and
ii. The system does not maintain customer time of journey.
information properly in case of an Reservation ofFlight: After providing all the
emergency, for instance, flight information, the system will ask the user for
cancellation due to badweather. confirmation. After confirming the information, the
iii. The system does not minimize the seatisreserved.
number of vacant seats on a flight in Canceling / Rescheduling ofTicket: To cancel the
order to maximize flight reservation, the customer should provide the details
capacityutilization. about ticket number and flightnumber, date and time
iv. The system requires more human efforts of flight.
and leads to frustration for travelers in
scheduling a trip, especially by 4.3.2 Non-functionalrequirements
increasing the efforts required to search The proposed system was designed to fulfill the
for the flight they need totake. following non-functionalrequirements.
v. Making reference to records most times PerformanceRequirements: Performance of the
becomes a problem because some of the system is dependent on the bandwidth of the
records are not easily found. internet and also on the hardware used.
vi. It creates an avenue for doubt on the SecurityRequirements: There is only one
capability of the company by the customer authorized person who can see the customer’s
or clients and the effort wasted in confidential information apart from the customer
duplication often leads to lack of interest himself. The information of the customer is only
in the job. available for theadministrator.
vii. Maintaining and managing data is very Software Quality Attributes: The system is user
costly and time consuming, because there friendly, interoperable andflexible.
are many documents that have to be
maintained by each branch and copies
have to be transferred to relative branches. 4.4 High Level Model of the proposed system
viii. Transfer of information within the
branches is costly and time consuming.

4.3 Requirements Analysis of the Proposed

System
The proposed distributed online airline reservation
system is a system that is capable of handling flight

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may want to travel within some minutes or

hours.
v. The system has the capability to make
available a Frequently Asked Questions
section to handle any enquiries users may
have about their flights.
vi. The system can enable the Airline
company manage their customers’
information in a way that is more efficient.

V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The result of this study is a Distributed Airline

Figure 2: High Level Model of the Proposed Reservation System with an easy-to-use web-based
Distributed Airline Reservation System Graphical User Interface (GUI) for both the airline
administrators’ and customers. The system
execution sequence is divided into the User
Figure 2 illustrates the high level model of the environment and the Administrator environment
proposed system. It comprises the customer module,
the journey module, the flight module, the ticket 5.1 Userenvironment
generation module, the schedule module and the a) WelcomePage
management module. The modules have functional This appears when the URL of Aero Airline is
dependences and are integrated as the airline typed into any web browser. While on this page,
reservation system. customers can either choose to search for a flight
and continue to book flights, view flight
schedules, view their journey details and access
The system works as follows: the about us and contact uspages as shown in
i. The customer should register in order to figure 3.
proceed to book ticketservice.

ii. The customer needs to input all the

required details during the
registration process.
iii. Upon successful registration, the
customer can proceed to book for
flight.

4.5 Justification for the Proposed System Figure 3: Welcome Page

The proposed system is designed in such a way
that it is able to meet up and achieve its set 5.2 Registration Form
objectives for airline companies in Nigeria. This is
made possible by overcoming all the problems that This form is used by customers (passengers) to
were traceable to the old system of operation. The register before booking a flight. To access this
outcome of this study will provide a basis for page, the customer needs to search for a flight. If
developing the appropriate approach to solving the flight is available, the customer can then
problems associated with air traveling operations in access the registration page or choose the next
relation to Airline Flight Information System available flight before
(AFIS). accessing the registration page as shown in figure
i. The system will provide an online airline 4.
reservation information system to facilitate
online booking and flight scheduling.
ii. The system is capable of handling transfer
of flight tickets from one user to another
prior to the time of flight.
iii. The system gives users the ease in
rescheduling their flights and enables them
to have more control over their time of
flight. Figure 4: Search Flights Interface
iv. The system has the ability to accommodate 5.3 Customer SearchForm
users who have not booked their flights but

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This interface can be accessed on the home page.

On this interface, the customer is required to
enter his or her confirmation code to find his/her
record. This record gives detailed information of
what was entered during the registration; italso
provides any booking and flight information
ifany as shown in figure 5.

Figure 7: Available Flights Interface

5.7 Ticket Booking Form

This interface is accessed by clicking on the
ticket reservations link button on the Flights page.
This form is used by registered customers to book
and reserve tickets. All fields on this pageare
mandatory and hence the user is expected to fill all
ofthem.
Figure 5: Customer Details Interface 5.8 Ticket Details Interface
This interface appears after a successful
5.4 Customer Search Result Interface ticket booking process. The user is required to note
This interface is as a result of a successful the ticket Id/confirmation number as it will be used
search for a customer’s record. This interface during flightbooking. The user can as well edit his
contains all the information that was entered flight information or reschedule his flight after
during registration and any other flight, ticket, booking as illustrated in figure 8.
schedule and journey information in case the
customer had already booked a flight. This
interface is accessed by entering the correct
confirmation number and clicking on
checkrecordas depicted in figure 6.

Figure 8: Edit Flight Information Page

5.9 Administrator’s Environment

This is a restricted environment; it is used by the

Figure 6: Customer Information Interface administrator to change the content of the
5.5 JourneyInterface database. It is accessed by clicking on the
This interface is accessible by both administrator link on the system menu. Access to
registered and non-registered users to view this environment requires an admin password. The
journey details. It is accessed by clicking on login interface is shown in figure 9. Once the
the Journeys link on the top menu of the correct admin password is entered, the admin will
system. have access to modify/delete and control the
5.6 Flight BookingForm operation of the system in the home page.On this
This is accessed by clicking on flight interface, the administrator can schedule flights,
reservations on the flights page. This form is used edit ticket information, change passwords, update
by the registered customers to a book flights. All journey details, schedule details, change database
fields on this form are mandatory; hence the user passwords and control every aspect of thesystem.
is expected to fill all thefields. The available
flights for booking are displayed after this as
illustrated in figure 7.

Figure 9: Login Page

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Macmillan Press Ltd.

After successful login, the administrator has
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