Gulf Air online sales posts 250% growth

In less than five months after launching the new booking engine, Gulf Air's online sales performance has recorded an impressive 250% growth over last year.

The state-of-the-art online booking engine’s easy-to-use features with flexible search for 'guaranteed best fares' and 'web-only' fares available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, and the safe and secure payment gateway have proven to be major drivers for this enormous success.

"We wanted to provide a comprehensive and user-friendly online booking experience as customers these days have started using the internet for booking their travel and related services such as accommodation and transport," says Gulf Air Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Björn Näf.

"Our strategy towards attracting more and more customers to take advantage of our online booking possibilities is paying off. In coming months, we will be introducing more services in our website, such as Frequent Flyer redemption tickets, changes, cancellations and more powerful tools to find Gulf Air’s most attractive fares."

"This is one more example of how Gulf Air is getting closer to understanding and fulfilling its customer needs and making their travel a smoother and faster experience with Gulf Air," concludes Mr. Näf.

Gulf Air launched the state-of-the-art internet booking engine in January 2008. Ever since the website has become an instant hit among the travelling public.

“Customers can now buy air tickets as well as book their hotel accommodation and car hire at very attractive rates in a matter of few clicks at Gulfair.com" adds Gulf Air Director Distribution and e-commerce Mr. Lars Denlew.

"Our 'Best Fare Guaranteed' promise ensures customers that Gulf Air flight prices on gulfair.com cannot be beaten by any other web site. For instance, our recent 'web' fare of just BD 99 for a return flight to Shanghai and hotels starting from BD 7 were quickly snapped up by many of our customers," concludes Mr. Denlew.

The Gulf Air website now links 73 cities in 33 countries. This means customers can explore best fares for over 3000 itineraries, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, until 23 hours prior to departure. When they see the fare that suits them tickets can be bought in a few seconds. In addition to booking air tickets, hotel and car hire online, customers can review their booking, check their flight status, and get comprehensive information about Gulf Air destinations.

"As a complement to the web site, Gulf Air also offers the services of its worldwide contact centre, open 0600 to Midnight daily, to help customers with their travel needs such as changing travel plans, class of travel and special requests. This is available for customers in the UK, USA and the Gulf where now also Qatar is being serviced with these extended hours," adds Gulf Air Director Customer Service Mrs. Ruth Birkin.

"When booking online or using our worldwide contact centre, Gulf Air takes note of the customers’ mobile number and e-mail address, so that they can be notified in case there are any changes with their flights. This service offers extra piece-of-mind and is not available when a customer books through a travel agent."

"Customers can also book their seat request, special meal and special assistance directly online or by phone. We are constantly working on adding more features, especially on the web. The coming months will see further improvements in our website," concludes Mrs. Birkin.