Cell phone ticket system makes life easier for Fly540 customers
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ly540 passengers can now pay for their tickets using the mobile phone based money transfer service M-Pesa. They can buy their Fly540 tickets from anywhere at any time as long as they are M-Pesa registered and have money in their M-Pesa account. Fly540 joins M-Pesa corporate Pay Bill partners using the service in Kenya. They include educational and financial institutions, NGOs and religious organisations, transport providers, insurance agencies, the hospitality industry, health management providers and hospitals. The airline’s operations director, Nixon Ooko, said: “M-Pesa will ease the procedure of buying tickets for our customers, many of whom are already familiar with using M-Pesa to pay for other services like buying goods in supermarkets, school fees, and paying bills for electricity and water. “The process is simple. Call Fly540 and make a reservation to any of our 23 destinations. You will receive a reference number. Go to the M-Pesa Pay Bill option and key in the number 540540. You will be asked for your reference number, upon which you will receive a confirmation and thereafter a ticket.”
Convenient Fly540 operates scheduled flights to 17 destinations in Kenya, with regional services to Entebbe, Dar es Salaam, Juba, Mwanza, Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro. The airline operates from both Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and Wilson Airport. M-Pesa was launched in 2007 by Safaricom. This SMS money transfer system allows individuals to deposit, send and withdraw funds using their cell phones. M-Pesa has grown rapidly and now reaches over 65 per cent of Kenya’s adult population. It is seen as the most successful mobile phone based financial service in the developing world. The M-Pesa Pay Bill service enables corporate organisations to receive funds from their customers or subscribers for goods and services rendered. It is aimed at organisations which have many transactions with customers and need a convenient and timely method of payment.
Africa’s low cost airline
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