The changing face of Airline Websites

The SITA Airline Trends survey highlights that the Airline industry will be actively embracing web and mobile technologies in the coming years.

The survey forecasts that by 2013:

• The number of airlines with web capability will rise to 93% from the current 65%
• The average number of tickets sold through Airlines direct sales channels will be up from 25.8% to 37.9%
• Airlines capability to sell tickets through mobile phones is set to rise from the current 18% to 70%

Airlines today are gradually realizing the importance of connecting with and selling directly to the customers, be it via website or mobile phone.

So what are they doing differently to attract and retain customers on their websites?

Traditionally, Airlines pay commissions to GDSs for distributing tickets to various channels including Travel agents.  As per SITA Airline IT trends survey 2010, Airlines continue to seek an increase in direct distribution in favour of a reduction in the level of tickets sold via GDSs. To enable this Airlines are constantly investing and innovating so as to provide richer functionalities to their online customers. They are moving beyond enriching the look and feel of the website or adding general functionalities such as travel planning, booking, check-in facilities, bar code boarding and status updates which look the same on almost all the Airline websites.

The industry is slowly realizing the importance of embracing new technologies to ensure seamless service to customers. Growing adoption of social tools and mobile applications, unbundling of products, increase in ancillary revenues and convergence of various direct channels are some of the technologies or trends that are enabling Airlines to become more operationally efficient and cost-effective.

Let us look at some of the new trends or technologies embraced by the Airline industry:

Social Tools: Airlines today are increasingly focusing on the complete life cycle of the Traveler and not just on selling seats. Adopting social tools such as collaborative trip planning, booking, destination search, Trip experience sharing, not only help in increasing the stickiness of websites but also enable Airlines to engage with customers at various pre and post travel touch points.

One such application is Trip finder from Lufthansa, which has contextual marketing capabilities to recognize individual passengers and use information from their frequent flier profile to offer specific products or offers.

Unbundling, Ancillary revenue and Dynamic Packaging: The traditional Airline business model is fast changing. Airlines today are unbundling products from the base price of the tickets and offering various value added services such as in-flight meal, travel insurance, premium seating, rental car, in-flight entertainment, express check-in so as to help the customers determine the products and services they value the most and are willing to purchase.  Flexibility and control provide travelers the choice of fares and products that best meet their needs, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. Ancillary revenues are growing in importance as new products and systems are coming on to the market.  Airlines are also experimenting with the concept of dynamic packaging which allows them to tap into separate inventory systems dynamically so as to create a real time travel package for the customers. Dynamic Packaging ensures that consumers have different and varied choices and makes the entire travel booking process more customized. Customers can opt for these value services on the web and this in a way is helping airlines to drive traffic to their website.

Mobile Web: Global adoption of mobile technology has soared in the last decade and will continue to grow in the coming years. According to a report released by Morgan Stanley, the number of mobile Internet users, will exceed desktop Internet users by 2015. Gartner estimates that by 2013, the mobile applications market will be $29.5B, growing at 63% per year.

Like other customer-facing industries such as Retail, Hospitality, Financial Services, the Airline industry too stands to gain enormous benefits from mobile devices in terms of operational and service innovation. Increased passenger adoption of mobility, coupled with an array of applications and high-broadband capabilities, is creating new passenger touchpoints, experiences, and capabilities to deliver relevant and personalized services. This massive shift in mobile adoption makes the mobile phone a critical platform for developing new services and content that can improve interactions and operations, increase personalization, and empower both passengers and employees. With new mobile communications technologies and standards such as 3G, 3.5G, and 4G either available or on the horizon, mobile phones will play a prominent role in broadband data communication. Mobile devices will help Airlines to further simplify the passenger’s journey and engage with customers in real-time, as they travel. Mobile phone is better and logical extension of desktop web for interacting with the customer, enhancing customer loyalty which further increases the stickiness and brand interaction.

In our coming posts we will pick each of these trends and discuss in detail their advantages and how they are transforming the Airline industry.