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Big data is a weapon
September 1st 2016
In 2016, airlines can reach their customers in ways undreamt of not so long ago. Read More »
Insights and applications drawn from our digital behaviour – both personally and in the work place – allow carriers to fine tune every part of their businesses, from maintenance and catering to staff management and flight operations.
Use of “the Cloud” has given the industry’s managers instant access to information across businesses. The “Internet of Things” is on the way, introducing a world in which almost everything imaginable will be connected.
But the most important advance of all, predict the information technology seers, will be the understanding Big Data will deliver to airlines about passenger aspirations and preferences.
Mining of Big Data and the use of data analytics, when properly interpreted, offer information that can keep carriers ahead of their rivals. Its applications can improve fuel consumption, saving millions of dollars annually, and deal objectively with disruption, whether weather-related or otherwise.
But most importantly, Big Data can be used to provide individual customers with precisely what they want from an airline, fostering loyalty, efficiency and productivity. It is why Cathay Pacific Airways chairman, John Slosar, recently said Big Data and data analytics are the “next big things” for the airline industry.
“What we are going to see is that airlines which take on data analytics will really learn about customer segmentation and trends in the market and then find ways of turning that information into propositions that will attract loyalty from customers. The airlines that do this will be the winners, he said. “Those who don’t will be left behind.”
Today, aviation IT providers are putting a huge effort into developing various IT solutions to enable airlines to utilize Big Data information across every segment of their businesses. Whatever it costs, carriers who ignore the future by failing to invest in data analytics will become industry dinosaurs. They won’t be part of the future connected world.
