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Singapore Airlines signs major deal with Alibaba Group
August 31st 2018
Singapore Airlines (SIA) continues to be a trendsetter in Asia-Pacific aviation. Read More » As part of the airline’s digital transformation drive, SIA has announced it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Hangzhou-headquartered tech giant, Alibaba Group, to enhance customer experience.
The collaboration includes Alibaba subsidies Fliggy, Alibaba Cloud, Alipay and Cainiao Network and covers flight ticket sales, loyalty programmes, marketing initiatives, cloud services and payments and logistics. “The capabilities of both groups, combined with access to more than 600 million monthly active mobile users on Alibaba’s China retail market places alone, will unlock new benefits for customers across the retail and travel value chains,” SIA said.
SIA and Alibaba Group established their first partnership in 2013, when SIA became one of the first non-Mainland airlines to accept Alipay as a payment option on its website. In 2016, an official SIA flagship store was launched on what was then known as Alitrip. It was later rebranded as Fliggy, Alibaba’s travel service platform, and offered direct purchase of SIA tickets for Mainland customers.
“Amid structural changes in our industry, we have been making significant steps to ensure we meet new competitive challenges and deliver on our brand promise. Through Alibaba Group’s advanced digital assets and keen insights of Chinese consumer behaviour, we will be able to better understand the needs of our customers and develop more innovative travel solutions,” said SIA executive vice president, Mak Swee Wah.
Later this year, SIA’s KrisFlyer frequent flyer programme and Fliggy will introduce two-way loyalty points conversion, giving members benefits from both loyalty programmes. KrisFlyer members will be able to convert their miles to Fliggy points and Fliggy members will have the same option of conversion with KrisFlyer miles.
SIA and Alipay will work on extending Alipay acceptance beyond flight purchases to cover in-flight products and services, airport services, retail merchandise and ancillaries. SIA will also collaborate with Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, to build a global “smart logistics network” that delivers anywhere in China within 24 hours and globally within 72 hours. Cainiao currently delivers approximately 42 million packages a day.
“We are very excited to be growing the scope of our collaboration with SIA, which is not only one of the world’s leading airlines but also one of the world’s most recognised brands,” said president of Alibaba Global Business Group, vice president of Alibaba Group and president of Fliggy, Angel Zhao.
“We have important capabilities and experiences to offer. The lessons we have learned in helping to transform e-commerce and drive important initiatives like New Retail will help deepen our partnership with SIA and provide our consumers with higher-quality global travel services. This strategic collaboration will mark a new chapter in our complementary relationship, as we share resources and cooperate with each other to create a new digital service experience for consumers.”
