Sky Assist - The challenges of seamless travel

“A smooth and hassle-free journey where passengers do not have to break stride from the curb to the gate unless they choose to is the goal: that would deliver tremendous value to passengers.” explained Transport Association’s (IATA) Chief Executive Tony Tyler at its 2013 World Passenger Symposium (1).

To make seamless travel a reality, airline and airports will have to collect, manage and share in real-time key information about the passenger journey and about their own key assets (planes, security checkpoint, staff, etc.). Airlines and airports face several challenges to make the fullest use of the latest intelligence inherent in their operational and passenger systems.

SITA in its 2014 report “Smart thinking” (2) has listed the five most important challenges accoding to airlines and airports.

System incompatibility & data integration
The variety of the systems currently used by airports, ground-handlers and airlines brings complexity to the exchange of data. System compatibility is an unavoidable step for the implementation of business intelligence initiatives.

Insufficient data standards
Due to the high number of systems in use by the different stakeholders, data is likely to come from multiple sources making it more complex to get meaningful information. Standards and good practices should be put in place to ensure the data interoperability.

Coping with / analysing the amount of data
Within airports and airlines, an important amount of data is already retrieved and collected. Nevertheless the challenge lies in the meaningfulness of the information. To be exposed to the passengers or the staff, the data should be processed, analysed and communicated in a user-friendly manner.

Willingness to share data
Although stakeholders recognize the need for collaboration, reluctance to share data freely is a fact; whether this is a across departments of the same company of with third-parties. The ambitions to improve services and operations are dependent on the ability of stakeholders to overcome this stumbling block.

Finally, SITA raises another challenge: “While airlines and airports have broadly similar ambitions to create greater visibility around the passenger journey, there are key differences in their priorities for utilizing business intelligence.” Indeed, airlines give the highest priority to “Sales & marketing” whereas airports put the focus on “Operational awareness”.

1. International Air Transport Association, Delivering More Value to Air Travelers, press release 29 October 2013.
2. SITA, Report “Smart thinking”, published in 2014.