11/5/2011 

Aviation technology - some good stuff....

When being asked about my views on good stuff that airlines have done within the last year in terms of technology, I first stepped back a bit to think about “what is good stuff in technology”? What is the purpose?

The 20th century was marked by airlines creating quite a complex environment. Instead of technology being an enabler the main responses in this period were “we cannot do” or “it will take 6 months, one year or more and there are a lot of limitations”. 

In the absence of the internet, distribution options and direct communication with the customers were limited. Traffic right and technological limitations led to codeshare agreements in order to offer a bigger network for customers. Frequent flyer programs were developed in order to get some direct contacts with the most loyal customers.  In this sense, the migration of Air India and Indian Airlines from their in house legacy systems to the new SITA Horizon PSS platform does mean quite some good stuff, comparable to a heart transplantation. Taking two separate airlines’ IT platforms in a merger situation, in a market which is probably not known for its well structured culture, and achieving the migration with a good quality within a 10 months period is indeed a record. 

Yet looking at the 21st century, the digital age, this is where the customer is finally getting in control. In 2025, almost every customer will have spent most of his life in a digital form, one way or another, and this is starting today. The mobile is getting more significant than the internet. Yet many airlines do not yet even have mobile check in or mobile flight information in place. Their websites do not yet work fully reliably. And they do not use all the opportunities for customer interaction that digital media provide but just replicate the traditional written formats. Web 2.0 and mobile offer unprecedented opportunities for customer interaction and engagement,   customer experience, managing customer expectations, social marketing, and subsequent loyalty and customer retention. In a much more efficient and clear way than traditional FFP me too programs could ever do. If this was applied to staff interaction and workflow as well, then this could become a clear differentiator, creating a unique selling proposition.

So who is already managing to make use of these opportunities? There are some good examples:

• Lufthansa - as traditional as they are - have introduced a mobile application “member scout”, allowing senator travellers to contact members near them and ask for example to share a cab, or go to the restaurant together when realizing that both of them are at the same location. They also developed a digital inflight magazine with an interactive and multi media approach, including pilot comments and customer experience examples. 
• Virgin Atlantic have not just introduced a mobile application like so many others, replicating their website or the flight information tables that airports use. They have introduced the “flight tracker”, a globe on which all their aircraft flying around are visible real time, can be followed with their flight route, arrival times and everything you want to know. Meeters and greeters can asked to be informed about the flight status. A brilliant way of endorsing the corporate identity and engaging the customer rather than just transmitting information. On top of the check in functionality, customers can also play games with Richard Branson. And in the application store, there are other applications around the themes of how to deal with jet lag, overcoming the fear of flying, and the Virgin holiday brochures.
• Swiss did a revamp of their mobile solution last year. In line with their brand values of the more traditional high quality airline, they developed an entry via a cube which the customer can turn in order to choose what he wants to do. Swiss use technology to give their customers this piece of mind experience, keeping them well informed in a consistent way and reconfirming for example simple things such as the flight will be on time; or when arriving at the airport, the airport display will inform even about a 5 minutes delay. Many airlines do not even manage to inform their customers at the boarding gate about a delay.
• Air New Zealand use technology to fulfill the demand for self servicing for their customers, avoiding the queues. They built excellent baggage self drop off islands at the airport. And in line with their brand identity, they trust their customers to buy extra luggage if their suitcase has more weight than is included in the price. During the online booking, they are probably the best example using multi-media technology and best pracitce internet options to inform their customers about their products at different stages in the booking cycles: via demo videos, pictures, text descriptions. On top, the customer can enter with different entries to find out what product best suits him.
• Air Baltic already started hiring out mobile devices for movies and music entertainment to their customers a couple of years ago. In the iPad era, the customer could even pre-order the movies beforehand instead of having to choose from the options the airline provides. No airline is doing that yet.
• Aer Lingus developed self servicing options for their customers last year in the light of the flight chaos created by the vulcano and the heavy snow falls later in the year. They allowed their customers to change their flights online, removing the penalties and constraints for a limited period that would normally have applied. Win - win for the customers having the control, and for Aer Lingus, being able to cope with the mass changes much better than many other airlines.
• Jet Blue developed a pro-active approach to dealing with customers in case of any service issues and irregularities. They allow their staff a lot of freedom to immediately reimburse with credit vouchers. Many airlines do not yet have the technology in place to even have credit vouchers in place, yet they are a very good way of customer retention, and excellent to show customer engagement in a pro-active way.
• Norwegian combine commodity technology for the areas which are standardized with any airline with smart in house developments in order to enhance the customer experience and achieve more efficient processes. They built their own middle ware in order to enable this. And this with only a very small IT team of 40 people. Congratulations!
• KLM and Air France created a seamless experience for their customers, regardless if they book KLM or Air France. The flight selection can be mixed, the best offers from any of the two airlines comes up. The products are aligned, including their latest “time to think” which allows to hold the flights for the offered price for a period up to 30 days (maximum, dependent on the actual request) for a fee of 15EUR, or to get a free reminder about the details without commitment to keep the rates. The upsell option, e.g. the premium economy product, will be shown automatically at the same time when the economy product is shown, so the customer can recognize the price and product differential easily.
• British Airways have introduced the tripseeker booking search entry only a couple of weeks ago, allowing the customer to search according to his preferred criteria. They also provide the option to choose a diary entry at the end of the booking, which automatically includes an entry a day before departure reminding of online / mobile check in.
• Jet 2 developed their own website in two years’ time, realizing that they want to realize a lot of business processes and staff communication for which their previous technology solution was too limited.

A lot of the innovation and good stuff is happening via web 2.0 and mobile, improving customer interaction and the intuitive seamless sales process. The devil is in the detail, because as always, the technology can only help to implement. Thinking through the approach with regard to customer behaviour, customer experience and business processes as well as corporate identity makes all the difference. And ensuring to have the technological foundations to be fast and efficient without limits, in a CAN DO approach to add any new solutions.

XXL Solutions combine aviation and technology knowledge to develop and implement a differentiating customer experience and an efficient workflow, thus achieving sustainable profitability. We help to develop the necessary strategy, processes and culture and to choose the technology to enable the business requirements. We offer solutions for airlines, airports and software development companies. Our services include commercial and technology strategy as well as implementation and turn key full outsourced services, covering customer experience and product development, modern and cost efficient approaches to entertainment on board, self servicing, social marketing, loyalty programs, e-learning, competitor watch, merchandising and sourcing, retailing. We also offer support with strategic and day to day sales and marketing questions on an around the clock model or with a limited number of days / hours per month. Please contact us for any further information: info@xxlsolutions.us or visit us on facebook or twitter (@xxlsolutions).