Design And Implementation Of An Online Airline Reservation Information System
Abstract
Airline Reservation Systems (ARS) used to be standalone systems. Each airline had its own system, disconnected from other airlines or ticket agents, and usable only by a designated number of airline employees. Travel agents in the 1970s pushed for access to the airlines’ systems. Today, air travel information is linked, stored, and retrieved by a network of Computer Reservations Systems (CRS), accessible by multiple airlines and travel agents.
This report is a summary of the study that was undertaken to design and implement an airline reservation system. The airline reservation system designed in this project was developed using php, java script and html as the programming languages and MySQL as the database Management system. The researcher reviewed the literature of reservation systems in chapter two and explored the advantages and limitations of reservation system in real life situations.
The researcher used interviews and questionnaire methods during the data collection phase, these data collection methods helped the researcher to better understand the existing system in use. Case tools and data flow diagram were used during the development process to simulate the process of airline reservation and ticket booking. The outcome of the study was an online airline reservation system tested and implemented in the case study Rwenzori Airlines to book, schedule and reserve flights.
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
In science and technology, the desire for improvement is a constant subject which triggers advancements. This is visible in every ramification and the airline industry is not an exemption. Airline reservation systems were first introduced in the late 1950s as relatively simple standalone systems to control flight inventory, maintain flight schedules, seat assignments and aircraft loading. Today modern airline reservation systems are comprehensive suites of products to provide systems that assist with a variety of airline management tasks and service customer needs from the time of initial reservation through completion of the flight.
The World Wide Web has become tremendously popular over the last four years, and currently most of the airlines have made provision for online reservation of their flights. The Internet has become a major resource for people looking for making reservations online without the hassle of meeting travel agents by implementing an online reservation system this ensures that reservation are not only generated by the airline own staff but also by any travel agent using a Global Distribution system or other airlines that have a multilateral Interline Traffic Agreement with the airline.
A Computer Reservations System is a computerized system used to store and retrieve information and conduct transactions related to travel. Computer reservation systems are classified as Passenger Service Systems (PSS) which handles a series of critical functions for the airline. For an Airline, the reservation system is a mission critical system that should use the latest state of the art technology to provide for all flight reservations on a robust platform, which is flexible and can be adapted to any style of airline. Secure and stable systems are vital to the airline industry which is why companies spend many years designing an architecture specifically suited to the nature of the airline industry which often requires tens of thousands of users to access and use the system simultaneously.
Rwenzori Airlines started as a small airline carrier in 1989 to facilitate air travel between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This airline was to facilitate transportation of cargo between the two countries. The airline was originally designed to handle small number of customers. In 1999 Rwenzori Airline was transformed into an International Airline facilitating travel of tens of thousands of passengers on a daily basis. Today Rwenzori Airlines still use a manual system of flight booking, flight management and scheduling. Flight booking is done through travel agents across major towns, flight data and customer details are kept in manual files. This system is slow and results into booking conflicts, vacant seats in some planes and it is hard to quickly obtain customer information in case of emergency. It’s for this reason, the researcher set out to design an online airline reservation system to provides a modern, flexible reservation and inventory management solutions including call Centre, travel agency, internet engine, global distribution systems and interlines booking with case study of Rwenzori Airlines
1.2 Problem statement
The current system is manual, this system is slow, time consuming and it is very difficult for each person to book through office agents. Users inquire about the tickets through phones and it is very difficult for the user to remember all the details that they received through phones. It is very difficult to calculate how many peoples registered and how many seats on a particular plane are vacant. This requires quite a lot of time and wastage of money as it requires quite lot of manpower to do.
1.3 Objectives
1.3.1 General Objective
To automate the process of airline ticket reservation, booking and airline management hence minimize errors resulting from manual system operations
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
To study the current system identifying its inefficiencies
To determine the requirements for the new system
To design an online airline reservation information system to facilitate online booking and flight scheduling
To implement the developed web based airline information system
To test and validate the developed system by use of case study
1.4 Scope of the Study
The developed system will facilitate online booking; keep customer records, provides an online menu on flight schedules, flight destinations and their prices, show alternative links to other partner airlines and will have page dedicated to customer queries and replies. The system excludes catering for calculating staff salary and other management issues.
1.5 Significance of the Study
From the viewpoint of the airline; the system will provide among other things the following;
Minimize repetitive work done by the system administrator and reservation clerks. Maintain consistency among different access modes, e.g. by phone, by web, at the information desk and across different physical locations.
Maintain customer information in case of emergency, e.g. flight cancellation due to inclement weather. Minimize the number of vacant seats on a flight and maximize flight capacity utilization
Reduce effort and frustration for travelers in scheduling a trip, especially by reducing the search effort for the flight they need to take.
In addition, the outcome of this study will provide a basis for developing the appropriate approach to the problems associated with air traveling operations in relation to Airline Reservation Systems
Chapter Two: Literature Review
2.0 INTRODUCTION:
This chapter provides the background and context of the research problems, reviews the existing literature on the Design And Implementation Of An Online Airline Reservation Information System, and acknowledges the contributions of scholars who have previously conducted similar research [REV27628] …
Table of Content
Preliminary Page(s)
List Of Tables
List Of Figures
List Of Abbreviations
Abstract
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
1.2 Problem statement
1.3 Objectives
1.3.1 General Objective
1.3.2 Specific Objectives
1.4 Scope of the Study
1.5 Significance of the Study
Chapter Two
Literature Review
2.1 History of Airline Reservation Information System
2.2 Reservation Information Systems
2.3 Components of Reservation Information Systems
2.3.1 Hardware
2.3.2 Software
2.3.3 Data
2.3.4 People
2.3.5 Procedures
2.3.6 Database
2.4 Types of Reservations in Reservation System
2.5 Types of Information System
2.5.1 Transaction Processing System (TPS)
2.5.3 Management Information System (MIS)
2.5.4 Decision-support systems (DSS)
2.5.5 Executive Support System (ESS)
2.6 Application of Reservation Systems
2.7 Advantages of Reservation Information Systems
2.8 Limitations of Reservation Information System
Chapter Three
Methodology
3.1 Overview
3.1.1 System Study and Analysis
3.1.2 Interviews
3.2.2 Questionnaire
3.3 Requirements Determination
3.3.1 Requirements Analysis
3.4 Output Design
3.5 System Implementation
3.6 System Testing
3.7 Database Structure
Chapter Four
System Design, Analysis And Implementation
4.1 System Design Objectives
4.2 System Design
4.2.1 Logical design
4.2.2 Conceptual design
4.2.3 Physical design
4.3 Functional Requirements
4.4 Non-functional requirements
4.5 Data Flow Diagrams
4.5.1 Context Diagram for Airline Reservation System
4.5.3 Level One Data Flow Diagram for Reservation Process
4.6 System Component Interactions
4.7 Database design
4.7.1 Entities
4.7.3 An Entity Relationship Diagram for Airline Reservation
4.7.4 Database Conceptual Design
4.7.5 Table Attribute Description (Physical Design)
4.8 System Implementation
4.8.1 System Users
4.8.2 Hardware Platform
4.8.3 Hardware Platform
4.8.4 System Execution Sequence
Chapter Five
Findings, Conclusion And Recommendations
5.1 Findings
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Conversion
5.4 Recommendations
References
Appendices
Appendix 1; Terminology
Appendix 2; Programming Listing
Appendix 3; Sample Data
Appendix 4; Flow Chart
List Of Tables
Table 1; Showing Customer’s details 27
Table 2; Showing Flight details 27
Table 3; Showing Journey details 28
Table 4; Showing User details 28
List Of Figures
Figure 2.1; Showing a global distribution system
Figure 2.2; Five Stages of Transaction Processing System
Figure 3.1; The system study and design model
Figure 4.1; Showing a context diagram for a reservation system
Figure 4.2; Level one data flow diagram for the reservation process
Figure 4.3; Showing interconnectivity of the different system components
Figure 4.4; Showing an entity relationship diagram for airline reservation system
Figure 4.5; Showing the data base logical design for an airline reservation system
Figure 4.6; Administrator use case diagram
Figure 4.7; Customer use case diagram
Figure 4.8; Showing the Welcome Interface
Figure 4.9; Showing Customer Registration Form
Figure 4.10; Showing the Customer Search Interface
Figure 4.11; Showing a Full Customer Record Interface
Figure 4.12; Showing Journey details Interface
Figure 4.13; Showing Rwenzori Airlines Schedules
Figure 4.14; Showing flight Reservations, Ticket Reservation Interface
Figure 4.15; Showing a Flight Booking Form
Figure 4.16; Showing Ticket Booking Form
Figure 4.17; Showing Ticket detail interface
Figure 4.18; Showing ticket Cancelation Interface
Figure 4.19; Showing Customer Contact Us Page/Interface
Figure 4.20; Showing Administrators‟ Password Interface
Figure 4.21; Showing Administrators Home Interface
Figure 4.22; Showing change password change interface
Figure 4.23; Showing database interface
Figure 4.24; Showing flight schedule interface
Figure 4.25; Showing journey entry form
Figure 4.26; Showing add ticket interface
Figure 4.27; Showing flight information interface
List Of Abbreviations
ARS; Air Reservation System
CASE; Computer-Aided Software Engineering
CRS; Computer Reservation System
DB; Data Base
DBMS; Database Management System
DDL; Data Definition Language
DFD; Data Flow Diagram
DML; Data Manipulation Language
DSS; Decision Support Systems
EG; Example Given
ERD; Entity Relationship Diagram
FK; Foreign Key
GB; Giga Byte
GDS; Global Distribution System
GUI; Graphical User Interface
HTML; Hypertext Markup Language
MB; Mega Byte
MHz; Mega Hertz
MIS; Management Information Systems
PHP; Hypertext Preprocessor
PK; Primary Key
PSS; Passenger Service System
RAM; Random Access Memory
TCP/IP; Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol
TPS; Transaction Processing Systems