We are now at a pivotal moment where airlines are entering a new era of opportunity, a dynamic technology-driven transformation based around partnerships, ecosystems and platforms.
This ongoing evolution of our industry requires insights from a cross-section of disciplines – technology, marketing, payment, consultancy, scenario planning.
This is why we invited experts from far and wide to meet up at Altitude 22, our event to discuss and dissect this new era for our industry, to reinvent how we can do things in order to renew travel.
The days of airline events where the only attendees are from airlines are long gone.
The airline industry has learned a lot during COVID-19. New traveler behaviors have emerged, but the pandemic also led to an acceleration of many trends. Today, there is enough current and forward-looking data to show that people are starting to travel again, albeit with some changed priorities and perspectives. Travelers also learned a lot about our industry during those dark days, and one of the main themes across the two days of Altitude 22 was the changing expectations of the traveler.
The traveler
“It’s time. Enabling tomorrow’s traveler experiences today” was one of the three pillars of Altitude 22. Travelers returning to the skies today are more digitally aware and demanding than before the pandemic, hence the need for airlines to ramp up automation, self-service, and real-time decision-making.
Amadeus is working, independently and with partners, to identify and help airlines provide exceptional digital experiences, across the full end-to-end journey.
There are many components to what comprises the traveler experience. Airlines need expertise across the board - engaging and acquiring travelers through personalized offers, converting the traveler across different touchpoints, offering self-service options instead of call centers, retaining passengers beyond the flying experience.
Some of the experiences demanded and expectations to be fulfilled predate the pandemic, some are new, but they all can be improved by the transition to cloud-native data-driven solutions.
Discussions from the event acknowledged that while not everything can be automated, airlines should aim for 100% self-service. “The call centre will never go away,” said a representative of a major airline “because passengers want freedom of channel when it comes to interactions.”
By providing a digital-first and personalized experience, an airline can sell beyond its core offer. This can increase customer lifetime value by giving every customer what they want, at the optimal yield for the airline.
Your airline
Airlines able to satisfy these demands have the potential to differentiate their brand through delivery. This was the focus of the second pillar of the event, “Set your business apart”. Airlines today have a range of tech-based options which allows them to differentiate product and service from their competitors, but also have the option to re-invent themselves and appeal to a wider target market. This drive for differentiation takes us very deeply into the technology required for airlines to capture the potential offered by dynamic orders and offers, personalization, traveler-centricity.
Phrases that pre-pandemic were visionary are close to becoming a reality. The renewal and reinvention of travel will only happen if airlines change their mindsets. Rather than “sellers of seats” airlines need to see themselves as “complete retailers”. The ability to innovate, to create customer offers across all channels, to bring these to market in real-time, to service remotely – are all now supported through technology.
Amadeus has been developing value-enhancing offer and order transformation technology which we are developing in a way that allows airlines to adapt to this new retailing world at their own pace, in line with their own specific business needs.
This change of approach will ensure that airlines have the technology needed to create more profitable offers, put them into the marketplace at the point where they will convert best, and deliver all elements of the offer in a frictionless way.
One breakout showed how airlines can now access insights to dynamically create personalized offers, appropriate to where the traveler is in their search-shop-book-pay journey.
Customer-centric technology, such as Traveler DNA, will lead to a paradigm shift in how seats are sold, in turn requiring a seat-change in how these dynamically-created bundles are fulfilled and accounted for. For the offer and order transformation to succeed, partners with experience and resources are essential. Knowledge of all airline processes, beyond retailing technology, is also important because the transformation will impact other areas of operation, such as revenue management, HR, back-office and marketing.
Our future
The industry’s digital infrastructure remains complex. Many different business and IT functions need to be considered, holistically and in isolation, for any industry transformation to proceed with confidence. Having the right partner to help you through the transformation will allow airlines “to make their next move with confidence”, the third pillar of Altitude 22.
The emphasis across the event on transformation led to many conversations about business continuity.
Business continuity, and the most effective way to evolve an airline’s core commerce solutions, keep data safe from cybersecurity and retain operational integrity is a priority for airlines and their transformation partners.
Having the right infrastructure is critical to enabling retail transformation and during times of disruption. Amadeus has a proven track record of working with airlines on major IT projects, of value-added collaboration, and committed investment. With our partners, we are at the forefront of change, focused on helping airlines co-create a new era of opportunity.
Amadeus understands that striving for simplicity, agility, performance and security requires a long-term vision which never loses sight of the immediate and short-term challenges ahead. Our move to the cloud and our approach to long-term strategic partnerships and collaboration is future-proofing our business, and this in turn also future-proofs the airlines we work with.
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