Aviation stakeholders have
been urged by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to embrace
data and digital transformation to help deliver a frictionless customer
experience while enhancing safety and efficiency.
“We must transform paper-based and legacy processes into digital ones and use
data to drive decision-making in all facets of our business. Organizational
silos will need to be shed to ensure a holistic focus on the entire customer
experience. And we will need to do all this while continuing to ensure the
highest levels of safety, security and environmental sustainability,” said
Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
In remarks delivered to the IATA Aviation Data Symposium in Athens, Greece,
de Juniac focused on three building blocks to achieving success: Develop
core data science capabilities and use data to drive safety and operational
improvement.
“The statistics tell us
that despite yearly fluctuations, the long-term trend is toward improving
safety. Nevertheless, we must intensify our efforts to ensure the
accident rate remains disconnected from the expected doubling in air traffic
demand over the next 20 years. Greater use of data will be critical to these
efforts,” said de Juniac.
He cited IATA’s Global Aviation Data Management GDM) program as an
example. “GADM captures data from more than 470 different industry
participants, through accident and incident reports, ground damage occurrences
and flight data. This supports a proactive data-driven approach for advanced
trend analysis and predictive risk mitigation.”
He also pointed to IATA’s Turbulence Aware initiative. “Using data already
being collected by aircraft systems, Turbulence Aware will help airlines avoid
turbulence, resulting in a decline in turbulence-related injuries, reduced fuel
burn and improved operational efficiencies.
Use modern data standards and technology to deliver a superior
customer experience
“Today we are on the
cusp of a digital transformation with the New Distribution Capacity (NDC)
and One Order. These programs, based on modern standards, will liberate the
industry from a century of accumulated legacies and deliver a much-needed
modernization of distribution and back office processes. They will usher in a
world of airline retailing that will drive value for the customer, airlines and
the entire air travel value chain,” said de Juniac.
NDC offers enhanced distribution with a modern XML-based data standard for
communications between airlines and travel agents. ONE Order replaces legacy
processes built around e-tickets, passenger name records, and electronic
miscellaneous documents, with a single retail, customer-focused order.
Turning to airport processes, de Juniac highlighted the ONe ID initiative
to re-invent the passenger journey with a document-free process based on
identity management and biometric recognition. “This will boost efficiency from
check-in to boarding—to the benefit of passengers, airports and the control authorities,”
said de Juniac.
Establish robust data governance towards suppliers and providers
“Modern aircraft
generate enormous amounts of data that can be analyzed to monitor operating
efficiency and reliability. While original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)
generally agree that airlines own the raw data produced by their aircraft, they
have taken steps to make it difficult for airlines to utilize this data. We are
engaging with the OEMs on behalf of our members on this issue,” said de Juniac.
Additionally, often airlines do not have information about customers who do not
book directly with the airline that would enable them to more easily contact
these customers in the event of operational disruptions. This information
resides in third-party booking systems. “I hope we can agree that delivering a
frictionless travel experience requires that the value chain be able to
pro-actively manage disruptions and deliver a personalized experience to our
shared customer. And that requires access to passenger information,” said de
Juniac.
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