Insight | Accelerate: Aviation London 2018 round-up
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The 26th annual Accelerate: Aviation conference took place in the heart of London on 14-15 November 2018. Attended by a range of airline and airport executives, industry experts and aviation companies from across the globe, the two-day symposium gave these professionals the opportunity to explore the state of the market, share best practice and discover new insights from our technologically changing world.
Topics discussed included digital transformation, distribution, diversity and what the industry will look like in the future. This handy debrief will cover the issues, with a particular focus on connectivity.
The opening leaders’ forum addressed a number of industry hot topics – from creating a corporate culture that actively encourages customer loyalty to gender imbalance within the pilot community – but it was clear what underpinned most discussions was digital transformation. And most instructively, how, and why, connectivity was the great enabler.
EasyJet’s Chief Operating Officer, Chris Browne, and Lars Sandahl Sørensen, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at SAS, gave a number of insights into what carriers must do in terms of digitisation to ensure they keep pace with a rapidly transforming industry.
Sørensen pointed out that strategically prioritising was key. Although he acknowledged that Scandinavian Airlines had equipped cabin crew with individual iPads to help passengers get great customer service, there was still work to be done.
“A key learning for us,” he said, “was hiring the right people to use these tools. It’s not just about having the right equipment, but using it effectively. At present we’re using about 35% to 40% of our digital equipment. We need to utilise the tools better.”
When it comes to the connected aircraft and using data effectively – something the second chapter of Inmarsat and the London School of Economics’ Sky High Economics Study explores in great detail – Sørensen and Browne were in accord. Airlines have to get better at understanding the data and what it means.
To that end, EasyJet is in the process of recruiting more data scientists to crunch the data, allowing the airline to turn those insights into useful benefits for its passengers and crew.
When it comes to IFC it’s all about the quality of service. Passengers are no longer willing to compromise on service.
"Bad connectivity is worse than no connectivity"
This was a theme Inmarsat’s Vice President, Sales - Europe, Isabelle Bachelier-Journel and David Fox, Deutsche Telekom’s Vice President, Inflight Services and Connectivity, returned to on a number of occasions during their joint presentation.
As Fox reiterated, in this day and age, “bad connectivity is worse than no connectivity.” This was a fact underlined by Inmarsat’s fourth annual passenger survey which found more than 50% of respondents would rather not have Wi-Fi if the service was poor.
With that in mind, Bachelier-Journel and Fox were on hand to present an update to the commercial launch of the European Aviation Network (EAN) – a unique collaborative solution between Inmarsat, Deutsche Telekom and its trusted partners. Tailor-made for Europe’s congested skies, EAN is the world’s first integrated satellite and air-to-ground network.
Further confirmation that connectivity is redrawing the passenger experience came when Bachelier-Journel and Fox were joined by Lufthansa’s Senior Director Sales, UK and Ireland, Andreas Köster and Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific’s Vice President, Marketing and Distribution.
In a panel discussion entitled, Reimagining Distribution for the Digital Age, they debated service innovations, such as how IFC can unlock new ancillary revenue streams, and how it can be the driver for digital transformation, operational efficiencies and cost savings.
Regarding the customer experience, Köster described IFC as a “game-changer”. And this experience is telling, as Lufthansa was the first premium airline to adopt Inmarsat’s GX Aviation service.
Said Bachelier-Journel: “High quality IFC will improve the relationship between customer and the airline. You can expect improved loyalty, more interaction, and also data via IFC to create a bespoke offering to understand what passengers are looking for. It can be the push for solutions to their questions: travel info, car rental, hotel rental. Everything you can do on the ground, you can do inflight.”
One take-out here is that IFC efficiencies such as personalisation could, in harmony with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) service, upgrade the short haul experience in Europe and drive brand differentiation and loyalty.
As Inmarsat’s Passenger Survey demonstrated, two-thirds of passengers are more likely to rebook with an airline if quality inflight Wi-Fi is available.
A subsidiary of Air France, up-and-coming boutique carrier, Joon, was inspired by the airline customer segment known as the millennial. Its Head of Product & Customer Experience, Célia Geslin, was on hand to discuss the next generation of low-cost airlines, and how digital is integral to its offer.
Joon’s values, Geslin outlined, are fourfold: digital, connected, simple and personalised. Launched in late 2017, its mission is to be a “laboratory of innovation.”
Personalisation is a real differentiator. Emphasising a ‘bring your own device’ approach to IFE, Joon’s aircraft all come equipped with USB chargers. And while innovation is a hallmark, Geslin acknowledges that this need to constantly push the boundaries doesn’t always work. Here she pointed to a €15 Virtual Reality headset passengers could rent on long-haul flights. Take up was poor, Geslin noted, and the service has been dropped.
Another carrier born in the digital age is Canadian airline, Swoop. A subsidiary of Westjet, Swoop is Canada’s first and only ultra low-cost carrier (ULCC). Its charismatic President Steven Greenway (and not just for his impressive handlebar moustache – a legacy of his involvement in this year’s Movember charity) was certainly the most provocative speaker at Accelerate with his unapologetic statements on how digital disruption is transforming the aviation industry.
Embracing the digital opportunities has meant Swoop places all its emphasis on its mobile app. Greenway has set his employees the challenge of removing its call centre by next year – and he acknowledged that Swoop’s website only had 30% functionality, compared to the app.
“If you want the full Swoop experience,” he said, “you have to download our app. Ideally the only human interface you will have with Swoop is on the plane.”
Here, he outlines Swoop’s plans a bit further. And yes, he really does want airlines to do away with IT departments.
"The trick is to collect data and understand the behaviours first"
Everyone in the industry acknowledges that ancillary revenues are important. But as Jouni Oksanen, airBaltic’s Senior Vice President, eCommerce, Sales and Marketing, pointed out at Accelerate: Aviation 2018, offering the right product at the right time is key. How to do that? Data.
“The trick is to collect data and understand the behaviours first,” Oksanen said.
This, he believes, can help improve customer experience without the passenger even knowing it.
For new carriers born in the digital age, this might seem like second nature. But for legacy carriers, such as Israel’s El Al Israel Airlines, digital strategies like personalisation are more of a challenge, and not just a behavioural one.
That’s why Oranit Beithalahmy, El Al’s Managing Director, North Europe and Africa, says the airline has brought in digital experts. This, she told the audience, creates a process where El Al can identify the challenges and then together create a better customer experience.
Should airlines try to outpace disruption or embrace it? Adapting business models to disruption is a crucial topic in airline boardrooms across the globe, and Dupsy Abiola, Head of Global Innovation at International Airlines Group (IAG) believes that digital opportunities are best realised when business do both.
She told delegates that IAG’s Hangar 51 accelerator programme enabled the likes of British Airways to really engage with companies that are operating at the front line of innovation (a term, she said, she preferred to disruption).
“Bringing businesses in internally to the heart of our company gives us all an amazing chance to foster new opportunities,” she said.
Abiola told the audience that she believes innovation is everywhere. And subsequently, this allows IAG to take a more nuanced and strategic view of the innovation ecosystem. “We are now deploying projects at scale, while continuing to innovate,” she said.
Any good conference is going to throw up a number of topics worth exploring, but the hot take from Accelerate Aviation 2018 is that innovation, digitisation and connectivity allow aviation to push forwards and embrace the future.
Connectivity is the great enabler for the coming years. And Inmarsat’s high-quality, game-changing solutions, such as EAN and GX Aviation, are integral to this technological revolution. These solutions will empower both airlines and passengers alike to make the most of IFC’s numerous benefits.
A fascinating conference, then, and one full of useful insights. Given the pace of tech-driven change, it will be interesting to see at next year’s event how far airlines have come on their respective connectivity journeys.
