SITA SUMMIT: Saudia calls for greater collaboration to ride the digital wave

Saudia's head of Information technology Mohammed Ali Al Bakri made an impassioned call for greater collaboration between airlines to develop solutions for greater use of mobile technology and social media for the benefit of passengers.

Al Bakri – speaking at the SITA Air Transport Summit in Brussels – said today that opportunities were there for airlines to work together in developing systems. The SITA conference was subtitles ‘ Together We Can Shape Tomorrow’ but Al Bakri said, “Tomorrow has already arrived for Saudia.”

He said that mobile take-up in the Kingdom was now exceeding 200% - that is more than two mobile devices per person – and that more than 70% of the country had access to high speed wifi or broadband.

“There is high passenger expectations for use of mobile devices,” he said.

Chair of the SITA board, Paul Coby, said this year’s IT Trends Survey confirmed that the way airlines are doing business is undergoing a fundamental transformation.

“Mobile apps permeate every step of the journey and core aspects of operations,” he said.

The Trends Survey showed 93% of airlines have mobile services for passengers as a top investment priority over the next three years, with 58% investing in major programmes.

The annual survey, represents the views of more than half of the world’s top 100 carriers, reported that airlines are focusing IT investment in the key areas of improving passenger service, reducing the cost of business operations and revenue generation. Passenger service is the top priority and mobile services for passengers tops the list with 58% of airlines planning major programs in the next three years. An additional 35% are investing in research and development. In the area of sales and distribution, mobile has taken hold with more than half of airlines already selling tickets via mobile devices and by 2015, 89% of the airlines plan to do so.

Coby said the real transformation is not just in the area of sales as airlines are now using mobile apps right across the business. By 2015, almost nine out of ten airlines plan to have the following core services available via mobile: flight search, check-in, boarding passes, ticket purchase, flight status notification, ancillary services, with customer complaint handling and missing baggage management following closely behind.

Half of the airlines have already implemented mobile services for flight search and check-in with close to half also providing boarding passes, ticket purchase and flight status notifications.

Francesco Violante SITA’s chief executive, said: “This year’s survey shows how airlines are committed to mobile across the whole business. Mobile apps are being used to improve the passenger experience, reduce operating costs and generate revenue. This is the second year that mobile services for passengers tops the list of investment programs and it is the adoption of mobile apps across sales, customer services and passenger processing that truly shows that airlines are committed to transformation.”

IATA’s director general, Tony Tyler, speaking at the Summit, said the increase in mobile devices would also lead to greater moves towards passenger self serive at check-in, bag drop etc. “Our goal at IATA is that 80% of global passengers will have full self service by 2020 he said.

Nine out of ten airlines in the SITA survey said they are investing in social media over the next three years. Some 57% of airlines believe social media can play a significant role in promoting sales with 39% stressing its value in customer service. Four out of ten promote flights via social media already, and almost 90% plan to do so by 2015. Both social media and mobile open the door for a more personalized service, and 78% of airlines in this year’s survey already have, or plan to, personalize sales offerings via their direct channels.

The major debate at the conference was how to harness the data that airlines hold. With loyalty programmes and pre-boarding information the airlines hold valuable data.

“By using the data, personalisation and customisation is much more effective,” Coby said. “A lot of airlines have made significant investment. Airlines invented loyalty programmes so data is there. The building blocks are in place. What we need to do is ensure there are consistent standards established,” he said.