SIS seen as high priority for the airline industry

Kale’s inaugural Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS): Airline Preparedness Survey, reveals 80% of respondents accord high to very high priority to SIS

Kale Consultants Ltd., a leading solutions provider to the airline and travel industry, today announced the results of its inaugural Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS) – Airline Preparedness Survey 2010. The online survey saw participation from over 70 respondents from 55+ airlines across the globe. The respondents included senior level representatives from revenue accounting departments of large and mid-sized airlines.

Simplified Interline Settlement is an IATA initiative to streamline the interline settlement process. This is a major industry change for the revenue accounting function at airlines globally, and will soon become a mandatory platform. The SIS platform will integrate significant industry initiatives such as First & Final™, Electronic Ticketing and Weekly Settlement.

The key objective of the study was to assess the airline industry’s readiness with regards to SIS. “Kale strongly believes in partnering the airline industry and we are committed to the success of IATA’s SIS initiative. The survey was carried out to gauge the industry’s readiness for this major initiative which will be operational this year. We intend to conduct a periodic follow-up survey as well as provide participants with insights as to how their peers are getting ready for this industry change,” said Neela Bhattacherjee, Head – Airlines & Travel SBU, Kale Consultants Ltd.

The survey revealed that over 80% of respondents accord High to Very High Priority to SIS compliance and consider it to be an essential initiative for the airline industry. The survey further reveals that the industry is fairly knowledgeable about changes required for Passenger interline billings and settlement requirements. At the same time, respondents were not thoroughly aware of changes required in the areas of cargo and miscellaneous billing settlements. Lack of sufficient understanding of the changes required is also the main reason why respondents feel the need for detailed training on SIS.

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

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, and

. integration of the IDEC (Interline Data Exchange Centre) passenger and cargo billing with ICH settlement on a weekly basis and expansion of the IDEC format with additional optional record types in order to support more billing items, such as rejects.