Comair – which operates British Airways and kulula.com in sub-Saharan Africa – is collaborating with Google Cloud to accelerate its digital transformation plans.

Comair has completed its infrastructure optimisation plans as it migrated six labour-intensive, on-premise data centres to Google Cloud. The migration of traditional IT infrastructure enables the airline to run key workloads that include important financial data, secure customer records, aircraft navigation information, and more.

Comair has also been able to benefit from the security, reliability and flexibility provided by Google Cloud, which has helped increase the airline’s efficiency during high-traffic seasons and peak travel times, as it needed to scale to meet consumer travel demand. 

The low-cost carrier is also now better positioned to build a data foundation using AI and machine learning using Google Cloud tools. In particular, Comair will be able to analyse customer data in a more comprehensive manner, creating personalised products and services, opening up more opportunities and improving the customer experience.

Moreover, Google Cloud is supporting Comair in modernising its legacy applications, such as its kulula.com booking application, using prominent tools like Firebase and Flutter to upgrade its functionalities and provide the scalability the airline requires.

Comair customers will now turn to the kulula.com application as the main channel to interact with the airline, following upgrades that have enabled more seamless booking and flight payments.

Niral Patel, Director of Google Cloud Africa, said: “We are proud to deliver the cloud infrastructure capabilities and tools that will further ingrain the airline’s brand promise to be the easiest to book and pay.

“By accelerating cloud adoption, Comair is able to reduce processing power for its systems and become more sustainable.”

Avsharn Bachoo, Comair Chief Information Officer, added: “We are delighted to have moved to Google Cloud at a time when Cloud has become the foundation that enables businesses to transform, differentiate and gain competitive advantage. The sooner you digitally transform, the quicker you’re able to respond to uncertain times. As a result, the digital maturity measures we’ve put in place have helped drive a post-lockdown recovery.”