A new contract between technology firm Sabre Corp. and
Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways is the latest example of major disruption
in the airline industry – changes that are bound to affect global air travel in a good
way.
Etihad Airways recently signed an agreement to use Sabre Branded Fares, which will allow passengers to book different types
of travel and select options for seating, baggage and the handling of airline
miles or points.
“Etihad
Airways is experiencing strong growth and has a clear strategy to provide its
passengers with more choice when booking fares,” Sabre Senior Vice President Harald Eisenaecher said in a press release. “We have been
working with Etihad Airways to find new ways to further personalize its
products and make the booking experience more seamless for passengers.”
By
getting fares more tailored to a particular flyer’s needs, Etihad hopes that the new functionality will help the airline to continue
to innovate in a rapidly advancing space.
Although these types of global air portals are
significant advances in booking and flight handling, they also take place
within a much greater context, where regional airlines have the potential to
disrupt their whole operational model.
“(Major airlines competing for passengers) have vast potential to disrupt themselves.” Jacob Ayres-Thomson, head of Data Science for JRP
Group, told the Gulf News
Journal. “In
the long run, data science has the potential to radically transform their
business models. Think of the flying experience and all the
interactions that take place from using the in-flight entertainment system to
purchases and flight routes, class and eating habits etc. This
mass of customer data then opens up the 3 P’s of possibility: personalization,
prediction and persuasion. The future, for example, of in-flight
entertainment, is that it remembers you and tailors itself to your tastes,
including of course any marketing or sales efforts.”
Ayres-Thomson, who also owns artificial intelligence firm Alchematics, said changing customer experience models is part
of it, but not all.
“Another
promising component of emerging technologies is
predictively optimizing where to put staff, planes and other resources – so
they are at the right place, at the right time,”
Ayres-Thomson
said.
For a large airline,
this is an insanely complex task, but Ayres-Thomson saod this can be solved using a
new science termed “machine learning.”
“I’ve found answers to problems in 30
minutes on a computer that running the machine since the universe began using
simple search methods would never have found – problems that are beyond the
independent minds of man, machine or math are not beyond artificial
intelligence – a science that powerfully fuses all three together,” he said.
To
build global movement data, airlines can also entice customers to install an
app that would then enable the airline to observe the customers once they stop
interacting with the airline.
Eventually, Ayres-Thomson said, “airlines
will wind up with data assets that reveal a clear and detailed picture of
what’s happening around the world … . If we look at the data – we could begin to build a world map of
global or route-specific migration patterns – eventually a simulation engine
that individually models every human on earth is not beyond the feasibility of
modern processing power. That is incredibly valuable in this industry.”
