Navigating Extreme Turbulence

The impact of COVID-19 has plunged the travel industry into an unprecedented crisis. Large airlines across the globe have grounded the majority of their flights, the projected revenue loss in 2020, due to COVID-19, is more than USD 300 billion. Digital technologies have the potential to disrupt traditional approaches to marketing, customer insights, and engagement, as well as to increase profitability. Most importantly, they can help the industry stay relevant.

If ever there was a time to adapt to survive, it is now! The travel industry must adapt to become resilient and be able to respond to such a crisis, like how Live Enterprises do. A Live Enterprise is one that has the innate ability to discover, adapt, and respond to its constantly changing environment in an attempt to live and thrive through change. Empowered with digital technologies, it can not only think and respond but also innovate to the beat of customers’ needs and the market in general.

Of course, the use of technology in the travel industry has evolved considerably in the last few years. Travel enterprises now have access to real-time data from multiple sources to help them improve demand forecasting, guest profiling, and resource planning. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), Data Analytics, etc., have reached an advanced level of sophistication and have several proven use cases across industries. These technologies have the potential to disrupt traditional approaches to marketing, customer insights, and engagement, as well as to increase profitability. Most importantly, they can help the industry stay relevant.

Here's how:

Use data and analytics to revisit asset utilization. Airlines operate hundreds of physical assets at airports, warehouses, offices, vendors, kitchen, data centers, and the aircraft itself. Analyzing the data from these sources can assess efficiency in meeting demand and capacity across asset planning, distribution, monitoring, maintenance, and auditing. Based on the data available, the airline can also look at optimizing the number of assets, plan better to reduce the delays or disruptions, and resolve integration challenges between airline, airport, authority, and vendor systems to maximize the use of assets in the future.

Employ Drones and Blockchain to improve safety and security. The crisis brought underlined the need for enhanced safety and security. Overnight, large numbers of passengers needed to be monitored and checked to reduce the potential spread of the virus at the airport. Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technologies can enable robots to scan passengers; drones can be utilized to sanitize airport interiors quickly; health and travel records of passengers could be secured through mediums such as Blockchain; and, increased automated passenger identification processes across will go a long way in ensuring zero-touch travel.

Deploy AI and ML to reduce costs: AI can potentially transform and enhance every aspect of travel significantly. The effectiveness of AI/ML hinges on the quality of data available, and the travel industry has traditionally been good at collecting data. Machine Learning combined with Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be used to build chatbots that can mimic human behavior, making interactions as smooth as possible for end-users. Cognitive chatbots can assist travelers at every stage of travel. They can go a long way in reducing the capital cost of such solutions and greater standardization of devices, technology, and adoption.

Use digital learning platforms for engagement. COVID-19 has forced free hours on airline staff due to reduced flights. Airlines can utilize this time for upskilling the employees in processes, tools, technologies, soft skills, languages, and other necessary skills. The availability of highly advanced digital training platforms can allow airlines to implement and execute training plans quickly without increasing overheads, ensure employees stay connected, and improve engagement.

The impact of technology on travel has been seen for a while now. Still, the crisis has offered the industry an opportunity to maximize digital technologies to ensure agility and responsiveness. In short, to navigate these turbulent times, the airline industry must look to become Live Enterprises. Now, that’s being resilient.

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