The new system will be introduced to reduce negative practices such as booking seats without any need for travel and canceling them in the last moment, thus preventing actual passengers from using the available seats. It will also put an end to the phenomenon of unauthorized agents, who offer reservation services through the Internet and social media holding seats and selling them to passengers for fabulous prices, sometimes reaching the price of an original ticket. These agents have been exploiting the present system of providing a specific timeframe to purchase tickets after making reservations.

The new system is applied in the airline industry and a number of airline companies have already implemented it to reduce the number of vacant seats. It will not only create a balance between reservation and ticket purchase but also enable actual passengers to make optimum use of available seats on our domestic flights.

Before introducing the new “Book and Pay” system, SAUDIA had implemented a series of programs to make maximum use of available seats on its flights, which helped in reducing no shows. The new system is supplementary to those programs that would enable to make optimum use of available seats and prevent unauthorized agents from misusing them, thus benefiting actual passengers.