Point of View – Leveraging Mobility to Enhance
Air Passenger Experience
Aug, 2014
Praveen Manjunath

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Table of Contents
Introduction...............................................................................................................................3
The Airline Industry ..................................................................................................................3
Innovation in Airline Industry ...................................................................................................................4
Key Challenges ..........................................................................................................................................5
Technology Spend in the Airline Industry...............................................................................5
Airline Passenger Journey.......................................................................................................5
Role of Mobility in Airline Passenger Journey ..........................................................................................7
Pre-Flight Experience ............................................................................................................................7
Inflight Experience ................................................................................................................................8
Post-flight Experience...........................................................................................................................9
Analytics as the backbone for Mobile Apps............................................................................9
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................10
Resources ...............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The evolution of mobile is the biggest tech shift that has immensely impacted all known businesses
across industries. The improving affordability of smartphones combined with the rapid advancement in
computing power and network speeds has led mobile to become the first screen for many users leading
current and emerging businesses to embrace mobile as their primary channel for communication and
commerce.
After incurring huge operating losses during the financial crisis of 2008-2009, the airline industry has
been showing improved profits since 2010 onwards thanks to strict capacity discipline. Large airlines
have maintained steady flying capacity even as the demand for air travel rose due to economic recovery
leading to an overall increase in air fare. However, with more than 200 airlines around the globe offering
flying services, the industry is rapidly heading towards commoditization. In order to bring in
differentiation, airlines are leveraging digital technologies to improve air travel experience and identify
ancillary revenue sources while attempting to keep the operational costs down.
Among the digital technologies that have a close consumer connect, mobility has shown a rapid growth
in the last few years due to its ability to supply information, content, and commerce to users on the
move. The impact of the mobile device in transforming everything from communication to content to
engagement explains the rapid growth in mobile traffic. Given its all pervasiveness, air travelers have
started using their mobiles and tablets for managing their air travel right from booking air tickets to
boarding, tracking baggage and consuming real time updates about flight status, weather, and traffic. In
most of the mobile applications, the mobility part represents the form factor while the analytics behind
the app is the real workhorse using disparate data to arrive at useful insights and decisions that are
presented to the user at the moment of truth. Though airlines have been gathering passenger specific
data since the last few decades, the problem lies in multiple data formats, siloed databases and IT
subsystems that has increased data inconsistency rendering them useless when it comes to analyzing
patterns. Consequently, as airlines look to provide good user experience delivered through mobile
devices, they are also normalizing their backend systems so that data is collected in a standard format at
every interaction point and is compatible across IT subsystems. This normalized approach to data
management will help airlines understand passengers better leading them to offer personalized travel
experience.
This point of view explores the role of mobility in creating a seamless end to end travel experience that
can help airlines improve revenue and passenger loyalty while bringing in differentiation.
The Airline Industry
The invention of air travel is perhaps the most significant of all inventions in the history of
transportation. The industry has had a long journey from carrying its first commercial passenger in 1914
to ferrying close to three billion passengers in 2013 connecting 200+ countries. The industry revenue
showed a consistent increase till late 90’s but the first decade of the 21st
century saw several turbulent
events including 9/11 and financial crisis on 2008-2009 which created a lot of volatility in the revenues.
Also, as air travel picked up after 9/11, the total available seat-miles, a measure of the flying capacity,

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also increased consistently till 2007 to cater to the rising demand for air travel. However, due to the
lower demand by both business and leisure travelers during the financial crisis, most airlines drastically
cut down the available seat-miles and have maintained the same or marginally added to this number
during the recovery phase. Strict capacity discipline and growing ancillary revenue ($13 per passenger)
along with improvements in the airline industry structure (mergers) and lower jet fuel prices have
resulted in a steady revenue growth from 2010 onwards. Despite the positive outlook on the revenue,
the profit per passenger will still be under $6 in FY2014 according to IATA forecasts and is coming at the
passenger’s expense. Given such an environment, it is in the best interest of the airline industry to
leverage digital technologies to boost ancillary revenue and improve service expectations.
Innovation in Airline Industry
Over the past century, the airline industry has seen multiple technology driven innovations that were a
result of social, economic, political, and technological factors. However, the first significant consumer
oriented innovation was the shift from paper-based tickets to self-service driven electronic tickets that
enabled the passenger to search and book tickets from the comforts of his desk. While the first wave of
consumer oriented innovation was due to the emergence of internet, the second wave of consumer
oriented innovation will be due to the emergence of mobile technology. Driven by increasing
smartphone adoption and network connectivity, airlines now have several opportunities to bring in
mobile driven innovations that can improve passenger experience and revenue per available seat mile.
Fig 1: Airline Innovation and Milestone History Timeline

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Key Challenges
Based on surveys conducted by IATA and SITA, the following are the key challenges for the airline
industry
 Provide a seamless passenger experience: In order to provide an end to end passenger experience,
airlines and airports are investing heavily in digital technologies that enable the passenger user his
personal electronic device to manage his journey across pre-travel, in-flight and post-travel.
 Grow ancillary revenue: The emergence of low cost carriers and the proliferation of online ticket
sites that help passengers identify the best flying deals have resulted in airline companies struggling
to the keep the price per ticket at a profitable rate. Unbundling offerings to generate ancillary
revenues has become a game changing strategy in the airline industry. As global airline carriers clock
in $40B in ancillary revenue in 2013, there are looking to leverage digital technologies that can help
the air passenger buy more and more of ancillary offerings.
Technology Spend in the Airline Industry
According to the 2014 Airline IT Trends survey by SITA, the overall IT and Telecom spend by the airlines
is estimated to be 2.2% of the revenues. Driven by the positive impact of technology on air travel,
approx. 75% of the airlines are looking to invest in new IT initiatives in 2014 compared to 2013.
With the rise in the smartphone adoption, almost all the airlines have made significant mobility related
investments. However, over one-third of the airlines are not actively tracking the key performance
indicators. In order to increase differentiation and build competitive advantage, airlines will need to
continue investing in mobility initiatives while actively tracking the performance indicators.
Table 1: Airline KPIs and their impact on business outcomes
Airline Passenger Journey
The airline passenger journey can be broadly categorized into three stages. The pre-travel stage will
include ticket booking, journey to the airport, baggage and check in, security clearance, passenger
services and boarding. The Inflight stage comprises of onboard customer service, entertainment and
commerce while the post-travel stage will include immigration, baggage handling, and destination
services.
Key Performance Indicators Increase Revenue Manage Cost Improve Customer Satisfaction
Increase in Loyalty
Low Churn
Mobile Self Service
Cost Savings on Staff and equipment
Improved efficiency and productivity
New Revenue Generation
Increased ability to personalize

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Fig 2: Airline Passenger Journey
Given the power and the reach of modern mobile phones, it is not surprising to see how mobiles can
play a significant role in each of the above activities. Airlines understand the impact of mobility on
customer experience and most of them have already deployed mobile for self-service tasks such as
check-in. However, because of usability issues, the adoption rate for some of these mobile initiatives is
quite low. In order to promote adoption, most airlines have started rolling out mobile apps that cover all
activities in the passenger journey with a renewed focus on app usability. The other areas that airlines
are hoping to use mobility are to drive the growth of ancillary revenues and provide disruption
management solutions.
Given the passenger affinity to their mobile devices, airlines are primarily using mobile as a channel for
enabling self-service, driving ancillary revenues, and deploying disruption management solutions. The
below figure depicts how each of these relate to the activities in the passenger journey
Table 2: Passenger Journey Activities and Purpose
Pre-Flight
•Ticket Booking
•Airport Travel
•Baggage Drop and
Check in
•Security Clearance
•Passenger Services
and Boarding
Inflight
•Onboard Customer
Experience
•Onboard
Entertainment
•Onboard Commerce
Post-Flight
•Immigration
Clearance
•Baggage Collection
•Destination Services
Journey Stage Passenger Journey Activities Enable Self Service Drive Ancillary Revenues Disruption Management
Ticket Booking
Airport Travel
Baggage Drop
Check-in
Security Clearance
Passenger Services
Boarding
Baggage Tracking
Customer profile
Crew Connect
Meal Ordering
Information and Content access
Virtual Shopping
Onboard transactions
Connecting with channel partners
Immigration clearance
Destination services
Pre-FlightInflightPost-Flight

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Role of Mobility in Airline Passenger Journey
Let us examine the role of mobility in enhancing the passenger experience by overlaying it with the
different set of activities
Pre-Flight Experience
Given the convenience of information and service consumption that mobility offers, it is not surprising
to see how mobility comes into play even before the passenger gets on the flight.
 Research and Ticket Booking: The web2.0 era has disintermediated several industries, the airline
ticketing industry being one of them. Passengers now routinely use the internet and the host of
online resources to research and identify best prices in the airline of their choice for their journey.
Mobile as a channel has added more convenience for the business travelers to look up and book
tickets to cater to their business travel requirement. There are host of third party apps that allow
passengers to research and book tickets instantly on the smartphone. These apps take into
considerations a variety of variables such as price, dates, no. of hops, airline choice etc. before
recommending suitable alternatives. Most of the airlines already have similar apps but the ability to
recommend alternate dates and destinations for cheaper price will be a value-add to the leisure
travelers. Airlines that have channel partnerships with local hotels, car rentals, entertainment
services (shows, sports, concerts etc.) will be able to integrate and recommend a suitable package
based on the customer context. For business travelers, allowing them to view their network on the
same flight and select seats based on neighbor preference will be an added benefit.
 Airport Travel: The era of contextualization has resulted in mobile devices taking on the role of
smart personal assistants. Intelligent mobile software can now track emails to identify user travel
dates and combine that with local traffic to recommend estimated travel time with airports. By
connecting people on similar flights, it is also possible to create car pool groups to ensure that
airport pickups are hassle free. Offering airport pick-up service for a small free at the time of ticket
booking will lead more travelers to buy such a service rather than offering such as service post ticket
booking. For passengers who wish to drive their own vehicle, airline apps can provide info on routes
and services available at specific airports along with reserving parking slots at airports all the while
provide information on schedule, source and destination weather and other information that could
potentially impact the passenger’s flight.
 Baggage Drop and Check-in: Airports have started deploying iBeacons which can connect with
mobile phone to guide passengers to locate baggage drop counters. At the baggage drop counters,
users can tap their NFC enabled mobile phones to print baggage tags that are RFID enabled for
baggage tracking. Apps can also provide other check-in specific info such as estimated waiting time
at security counters; location specific action based on security guidelines, opt for upgrades or
changes in reservations and seat preference etc.
 Way finding and Passenger Services: The combination of app and location based technology can
also provide info and directions to security counters, boarding gates and services such as shopping,
dining, waiting lounges etc. Passengers can leverage apps with AR technology to point their
smartphone and identify such services. Some apps can also provide voice based guidance for visually
impaired. A host of other passenger services such as live feeds for airport weather, counter queues;

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mobile based food ordering that can be delivered to the gates or on flight; store and offer locators;
features such as tax refund calculator, currency converter; language assistance for airport signage;
airport event list; location/loyalty points based store offers etc. can be integrated with mobile apps.
Inflight Experience
In the last few years, the inflight experience has significantly evolved with most airlines using mobile and
analytics to offer a personalized approach to providing inflight customer service, entertainment, and
commerce. In the whole passenger journey, this is the stage which can be completely owned by the
airlines thus making it a sweet spot for owning the passenger experience and bringing in differentiation
 Onboard Customer Service: The onboard customer service is a key part of the passenger journey
and can create a significant impact on the passenger’s experience thus making it imperative for
airlines to offer state of the art service by leveraging the latest in mobility and analytics. Mobility will
enable the flight crew to view the profile of the passenger and identify return customers. For a
return customer, crew should be able to access the customer profile and previous trips including
feedback to understand preferences seating, meal, and entertainment preferences. The passenger
should be able to indicate his previous/new preference to the crew before boarding or inflight at the
click of a button on the mobile app. By looking at the profile of passengers and their interests,
airlines will be able to segment the passengers better and accordingly create offerings. Eg: Weekend
passengers might be more interested in sports and entertainment related content as opposed to
weekday passengers who would be interested in business content.
 Onboard Entertainment: With most airlines equipped to offer wi-fi in flight, there is a strong case
for BYOD for onboard entertainment. Apart from ancillary revenue generation that airlines can
derive by partnering with content providers like Netflix to offer latest movies and shows to
passengers, airlines can use this trend to achieve huge reduction in operational costs since doing
away with inflight entertainment devices will remove significant weight off the plane leading to
lower fuel consumption. The other uses of BYOD can be to integrate the route map with wiki to
provide 3D imagery of the flight path complete with landmarks and local news directly to the
passenger mobile device. Several airlines also exploring renting ipads/tablets preloaded with
content for the duration of the flight.
 Onboard Ancillary Revenue Generation: According to the IATA, the global aviation industry is
expected to make a profit of $5.65 per passenger in 2014. Though this number has improved
compared to 2012 ($2.05) and 2013($4.13), it is still lower compared to what was achieved in 2010
($6.45). With fuel costs expected to go up this year, the operational cost is expected to increase.
Airlines are betting on covering this increase through ancillary revenues by rolling out newer
offerings. Apart from equipping crew with mobile devices that can process inflight card transactions,
airlines are creating more shopping options for passengers by partnering with channels (amazon,
Netflix, hotel.com) and opting for innovative approaches such as open tab option to encourage on
board purchase. Airlines can also offer real time luggage tracking for a fee for those passengers who
are concerned whether their checked in luggage will reach the destination on time. By positioning
the passengers’ mobile devices as a shopping channel, airlines are trying to boost ancillary revenue

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by selling everything from onboard wi-fi access to destination based shopping gear, food and
entertainment, hotel and transportation etc.
Post-flight Experience
As the passenger exits the flight, the top things on his mind would be to collect his baggage, get through
the immigration (in case of international travel) and hop on a transport to reach his destination. This is a
delicate leg of the journey where the passenger experience can lead him to form a perspective on the
overall travel experience and hence airlines should do everything they can to make this stage of the
journey as hassle free as possible.
 Immigration Clearance: In case of an international travel, one of the key activities for a passenger as
soon as he gets off the plane is to clear the immigration. The current norm is that the airlines
provide a hard copy of the immigration form on flight which the passenger fills up and hands it over
the immigration officer at the counter. Mobile aps can make digitize these immigration forms and
import basic information about the passenger name, destination, flight details etc. extracting this
info from mobile boarding pass. Once at the counter, the digital form can be transferred to the
immigration system through NFC tap or QR code scanning. Apps can also indicate the number of
immigration counters active and estimated waiting time at each counter.
 Baggage Collection: Mobile apps offering baggage tracking features can provide real time
information about where the passenger’s baggage is and also indicate the carousel number where
he will need to collect it from. In case there is a delay in the baggage arrival, the app can display the
expected arrival time of the baggage leaving the passenger free to grab a snack while waiting for the
same. In case of a lost bag, the passenger should be able to log a complaint directly from the app
without needing to run around locating a counter for complaint registration.
 Destination Services: Mobile apps can play a huge role in helping the passenger navigate through
the destination airport by providing airport maps, transportation options, car and hotel booking
along with providing info and live feeds about destination events, weather etc.
 Passenger Engagement: Mobile devices offer a fantastic channel for airlines to engage with their
passengers post travel. Through mobile surveys, airlines can solicit comments and feedback about
the overall journey experience. Airlines who have tie ups with local businesses can offer discounts to
passengers delivered through location based services. By gamifying the mobile interaction, the
engagement becomes more interesting and will leave a positive impression on the passengers.
Analytics as the backbone for Mobile Apps
As in other industries, it costs airlines more to acquire a new passenger than to retain an existing one. In
the past, airlines have used loyalty programs which have served as a successful retention strategy.
However, with the changing industry dynamics (customer behavior driven by demography change,
economic impact, and emerging technologies etc.), experience has emerged as the key lever which the
passengers look for before deciding on which airline to fly with. To cater to the emerging needs of the
new generation of passengers, airlines will need to offer end to end seamless experience delivered on

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mobile and tablets driven by powerful backend analytics which captures data at every interaction point
to aid in personalization.
Airlines can use both structured and unstructured data from a variety of sources for creating passenger
intelligence
Fig 3: Types of data in airline industry
By applying the right type of analytics on the above data, airlines will be able to improve passenger
experience while boosting ancillary revenue
Fig 4: Role of Analytics in enhancing business value
Conclusion
The commoditization of air travel has led many airlines to focus on aspects that make travel more
enjoyable and hassle free for passengers. In this regard, airlines are rewiring their backend systems to
create a 360 degree contextual view of the passenger and delivering content and services using the
mobile form factor. While most airlines have started exploring mobile technology for self-service, there
is ample scope for airlines to use mobility to generate ancillary revenue and provide disruption
management services.

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Resources
1. http://www.iata.org/
2. http://www.futuretravelexperience.com/
3. http://moz.com/blog/when-it-comes-to-analytics-are-you-doing-enough