Unprecedented social changes, accelerated by facilitating technologies and the COVID-19 pandemic, are calling for airlines to think deeply and non-conventionally on what will be important to existing and new travelers, as they change their lifestyles. New thinking requires airlines to extend the boundaries of their businesses to go beyond their traditional domains. This need goes beyond the renovation and iteration of conventional products to the transformation of products requiring new ideas and ways to scale them. Examples include the development of cost-effective urban air mobility, intermodal passenger transportation, door-to-door travel that is sustainable, and personalized offers.
Airimagination: Extending the Airline Business Boundaries raises some thought-provoking questions and provides a direction for practical solutions. For example, what if airlines developed products and services that finally meet end-to-end needs of customers seamlessly by collaborating in the value-adding open ecosystems, using platforms that facilitate effective engagement with both "digital and nondigital" customers and employees in real time and at each touch point? Ironically, the current time is an advantage for some airlines as they already have had to deal with a deep and wide disruption caused by the pandemic, leading operations to start from ground zero.
This book, the latest in a long and well-regarded series by Nawal K. Taneja, explores innovative best practices within the airline business world, complemented by numerous insightful perspectives contained in multiple forewords and thought leadership pieces. This book is aimed primarily at high-level practitioners within the airline industry and related businesses.
Author(s): Nawal K. Taneja
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 236
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Forewords
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: What if airlines adapted to consumer lifestyle changes?
Implications for airlines
Outline of chapters
Notes
Chapter 2: What if airline products were reengineered?
Short-term improvements in the core product
Clean-sheet scheduling
Scheduling for profitability and reliability
Producing operations-friendly schedules
Improving forecast accuracy
Dynamic scheduling
Medium-term improvements in the core product
Door-to-door travel
Small electric aircraft
Air taxis
Long-term improvements in the core product
Supersonic aircraft
Hyperloop vehicles
Hydrogen-powered aircraft
Highlights
Notes
Chapter 3: What if airlines rethought their revenue approach?
Traditional revenue approach
Offer management
New pricing/revenue management techniques
Seat buy-back
Ancillary pricing optimization/revenue management
Customer choice model
Dynamic pricing
Offer revenue management
Network planning/revenue management integration
Real-time revenue management
AI (algorithms)
Strategic pricing
Next-generation revenue management
Selling differently
Selling more products on airline.com as a natural retail channel
New pricing schemes
Better shopping displays
In-flight shopping
NDC and distribution
Highlights
Notes
Chapter 4: What if airlines reimagined and redefined customer experience?
Customer service versus customer experience
Two insightful examples
Amazon
DBS Bank
Personalization
Challenges
Opportunities
Digital experience
AI and machine learning
Highlights
Notes
Chapter 5: What if the aviation industry contributed no carbon emissions?
Developments relating to climate change
Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs)
The net-zero-by-2050 scenario
Implications for airlines
Making sustainability the core of an airline’s business strategy
Highlights
Notes
Chapter 6: What if airlines could do more with less?
Collaborating by design
Building digital resiliency capabilities
Strategizing for positional superiority
Highlights
Notes
Chapter 7: What if airlines could truly differentiate themselves?
Applying the principles in practice
JetBlue Airways
Alaska Airlines
Characteristics of Agility Airlines
Network and schedule planning
Revenue and offer management
Designing customer experience through a holistic approach
Sustainability as a competitive advantage
Doing more with less
Notes
Chapter 8: Thought leadership pieces
Overview
How do airline customers choose flights?
What does a customer choice model look like?
Measuring airline preferences and applying those preferences
Embedding customer choice throughout the airline
Implementing a customer choice program
Summary
Turning air into magic
Loyalty programs as the beacon of airline innovation
Pulling the curtains on the true value of loyalty programs
Innovation implies risk
Change is the only constant
Making the loyalty program go the extra mile
Final thoughts
The operation’s support for a new airline customer proposition
Everything will remain different—a different view on change
Stop playing copycat
Enhancing revenue management analyst effectiveness with human–machine symbiosis: learning to work with machines
Overview
The convergence and improvement of human–machine interaction
Repetitive tasks and cognition
Enter machine learning and robotic process automation
It's not a question of human or machine but a matter of human and machine
Value unlocked through automation
Better together
Whatever you do, start with the customer
Creativity as the competitive advantage
Customer experience is a movement, not a department!
Opportunities during emotional connection
Outside in
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are 5
Alone you go fast, together you go further
Think like a 5-year-old
Personalization, the next big thing
The missing link
A hands-in-the-pockets experience
Creating unexpected compelling experiences to increase bookings and ancillary revenues
What if airports changed into mobility hubs?
The added value of a mobility hub regarding these main trend categories
What is the impact of these trends on the business model of a hub airport?
What are customer needs regarding a mobility hub?
Customer needs
Quality of connections
Quantity of means of transport
Infrastructure for multi-and intermodality
What else is important: Ecosystem and funding
Ecosystem—partnership and coopetition
Responsibility and funding
How to find the right course and get the feet off the ground?
Digression
Existing mobility offer at Frankfurt Airport
Airplane
Train
Regional public transport
Coach
Car
Mobility services
Bikes and micromobility
A new dynamic approach to network planning
Designing a network and a schedule that is adaptable to what customers want
Adapt time-of-day coverage
Address the long tail of markets
Implication on the schedule side
Commercial and operational integration leads to dynamic scheduling and reduced lag time in the feedback loops
Close-in signal led changes to the schedule
Use of computational horsepower to tweak capacity plans
Clean-sheet scheduling
Making clean-sheet scheduling real
Overview
Characteristics of clean-sheet scheduling
When in their process should airlines perform clean-sheet scheduling?
Solution approach
Observations about the solution approach
Applications of clean-sheet scheduling
Summary
Notes
About the author
Index
