10 minute read
Big Data, taking airlines places
By Duncan Jackson, President of FlightPath3D
Part 1 - Trends Shaping IFE Industry
Advertisement
Big data has tremendous potential to enhance the passenger experience and is one of the most important trends driving the evolution of air travel today.
There are literally billions of experiences being consumed each year driving demand for air travel. Instagram, for example, has 100 million new photos every single day.
If leveraged properly it has the power to:
• Create a personalized inflight service by harnessing billions of social experiences
• Predict demand for specific flights by learning passenger desires
• Generate ticket sales and ancillary revenue
There are three big trends shaping passenger needs and the Inflight Entertainment (IFE) Industry today, these include:
• The growth in experiential travel
• Big data and AI driving personalization
• The growth in ancillary revenue
There is an opportunity to create a paradigm shift in the inflight experience using data that can dynamically re-organize IFE content to create more targeted products and travel suggestions for passengers.
There are literally billions of experiences being consumed each year driving demand for air travel. Instagram, for example, has 100 million new photos every single day.
Airlines that leverage this rise in available data can create a competi-tive advantage that will leave other airlines behind.
1. The growth in experiential travel
Online photos, videos, and stories are one of the biggest inspirations for traveler wish lists and air travel. Social media has accelerated the shift from traditional mass travel to a more personalized experience.
Anyone can now discover where friends and influencers have visited, how they traveled, and the moments they enjoyed.
Travelers are Craving Local Authentic Experiences
People are seeking off-the-beaten-path adventures that are authentic, unforgettable and Instagram-worthy.
Whether your passion is to explore cathedrals in Croatia, taste pastries in Paris, or nature in Norway, passengers are showing an enormous appetite to explore and get hyper-local. Passengers want to explore places with social and contextual information and to capture a more meaningful personal experience.
Snacking on Bite-Sized Travel Experiences
Business travelers and tourists are both looking to pack travel itineraries into shorter time-frames. With a rise in weekend getaways and business travelers looking to add some interest to their trip - many travelers are looking to slot in a few unplanned activities, asking themselves; “What’s the most popular thing to do near my hotel?” or “Where can I go for a run in the morning?”
Many people haven’t had time to plan these smaller activities, which creates a huge opportunity for airlines to service the consumer who is motivated to do last minute research for a bite-sized travel snack.
Immersive Augmented Reality
The experiential traveler is seeking to be immersed in the journey from the moment they leave their home. In-flight they are seeking deeper engagement with the flying experience more than simply watching movies to pass the time.
3D augmented reality (AR) experiences such as virtual cockpit or augmented camera view are some of the most popular selected experiences inflight with an astonishing 60%+ open rate on some seatback IFE systems.
The new experiential traveler wants:
• To explore socially evaluated places
• Take part in the local culture and memorialize it online
• Wants an immersive experience from the moment they start their journey
2. Big Data and artificial intelligence
Intelligent IFE
Big data has been described as a cultural movement helping us discover how consumers interact with the world.
We can now harness the patterns in billions of online experiences and enhance how your passengers interact with the IFE. We can understand both individual and community-based desires amongst travelers with similar tastes.
People already have smart homes with AI agents everywhere from thermostats to door locks to Alexa, Google Home, and Siri. Intelligent IFE will help passengers plan their next trip, recommend destinations, search flights, and airport transfer options.
The Personal Touch
Making the passenger feel understood has always been a core component of business class.
Airlines rely heavily on delivering excellent customer service to build their reputation and AI technology can be used to improve and tailor recommendations and guarantee fast response times, even in the absence of staff.
Dynamically re-organizing data inflight to create more targeted products and travel suggestions. For example, passengers can explore “individualized points of interest” that have been compiled based on themes and geospatial queries and make a suggestion like:
for the athletic type, or
for the history buff
3. Ancillary Revenue growth
Ancillary Revenue at $92.9 Billion in 2018
According to CarTrawler and IdeaWorks - company ancillary revenue is generated by activities and services that yield cashflow for airlines beyond the simple transportation of customers from A to B. These activities provide more options for consumers and more profit for airlines.
The key components of this revenue fall into two broad buckets:
• In-Aircraft Services such as checked baggage, food and beverage salesand seat related like extra leg room
• Off-Aircraft Services relating to commissions from travel retail like hotelbookings or car rentals
The off-aircraft revenue has the potential to dwarf on-board services with the arrival of the connected aircraft.
Ground-based travel services purchased inflight will continue to fuel the growth in ancillary aircraft revenue.
The question is what information and travel services will passengers desire most.
The New Connected Airline Economy
There’s a new connected airline economy around the corner that will unlock ancillary revenue growth powered by over 2 billion smartphones and billions more smart devices. Inflight IFE and these devices will enable access to $330Bn of sharing economy services and over $500Bn of indestination spend.
Part Two - Top Four Big Data Tips1. Socially Rank IFE Content
Internet Content is Socially Organized, why not IFE ?
Data science can collate, tag and prioritize content to assist users to find the most relevant, popular or recent article, post or video. Google and Facebook dynamically prioritize and rank content based on user interest. Why aren’t IFE systems?
In the context of IFE, we can take experiences from millions of people and apply machine learning and algorithms to analyze billions of reviews, photos, visits and other social records to identify and organize any IFE content.
Aggregate Travel Experiences Around Your Network
To service the desires of the experiential traveler, we can aggregate hundreds of thousands of landmarks, attractions and other points of interest around the globe and present them based on the routes you fly and your destinations.
Analyse and Rank
We can then allow passengers to ”explore things to do that have been prioritized” based upon millions of travelers experiences, billions of data sets, and the aircraft’s current location and destination.
Social ranking allows passengers to explore things to do with incredible accuracy; the most popular experiences trending anywhere, right now, even within a few city blocks.
As the passenger continues to engage and explore we can make further, more accurate, personalized recommendations.
2. Make Recommendations
Make Comparison Suggestions
We are all very familiar with the online experience of “Frequently boughttogether” or “People who bought this also bought”?
Where value is created for the customer by facilitating the discovery for products and experiences available to save to a wish list. Why not do this with travel and entertainment services?
Drive Product Placement and Sales
Marketers have moved toward more active 3. Specific to the destination product placement – which is what we technically refer to as product integration where the product is woven into the passenger experience.
For example, offering a passenger the ability to see things to do in their destination ranked by popularity and also suggested by their actions. We know you land at Noon and the potential to visit a local hot spot.
Present in Context of Route between socially ranked
Presenting activities, restaurants, hotels, ground transport options, airport services, recommendations and and other data that is dynamically:
1. Trending right now & ranked by popularity map.
2. Based on passenger profile & interactions
3. Specific to the destination. Here's an example for Santa Ana Airport in California.
Recommendations work best when created in a way that passengers would want to , without perceiving them as ranked by popularity and also suggested commercial offerings.
Let’s look at how we make the link between socially ranked recommendations and your route map.
3. Promote Routes and Flights
Network Insight and Passenger Demand
Every route of a network needs to contribute to an airline’s bottom line. Tap into customers inflight to gain valuable insights into real-time passenger demand and flight trends. There’s no better place to educate and analyze customer demand than when passengers are onboard with plenty of time on their hands.
Interactive Route and Destination Directory
An intelligent route application can allow passengers to pick their preferred origin or destination and filter down to show flights and routes. Passengers can see flight duration and distance on the IFE screen.
IFE Flight Schedule and Calendar
Choose to show your flight schedule and daily flight times within a calendar view. A flight summary view captures departure and arrival times, distance and other relevant details.
Flight and route data can be stored onboard and updated using a media upload process to create this experience inflight without constantly streaming data. With connectivity, passengers can see pricing, inventory and book a flight from your website.
Route Analytics
A simple, playful and interactive experience powered by your flight data can showcase your destinations and allow passengers to create a wish list of future travel destinations, check flight times and much more to assist with your network planning.
Captured data can include:
• Route search intelligence includes route views and searches by user
• Ranking reports for a specific route, destination and other categories
• Location intelligence to analyze trends based on the flight’s location
4. Offer Destination Information and Services
Provide Relevant TravelInformation and Services
All passengers are on themove and as such have aspecific need to consumeinformation and servicesrelated to their journey.Drive ancillary revenueand enable your passengersto research and purchasetravel services.
Offer Ground Transportation Options
All passengers need to take care of transport to and from an airport. Present car rental, rideshare, shuttle, or other transport options with pricing based on distance from the airport to their final destination.
It’s now possible to store distance and time estimates in an IFE system and easily add pricing from transportation providers. Ride and car booking options can be offered from a connected aircraft.
Showcase Your Partners
Showcase your airline partners, hotels , financial services, car rental, restaurants, attractions in the context of the passenger’s journey.
Offer Hyper-local Information and Experiences
Data science enabled billions of traveler statistics to identify hundreds of thousands of attractions worldwide and rank them by popularity. Sharing these hyper-local experiences that are prioritized
by their popularity and specific location means any passenger can explore what to do within walking distance of any hotel.
This offers huge value to a passenger and an ability for an airline to earn a commission for bookings.
Summary
Passengers are Craving Disruptive Innovation
The digital revolution has given birth to a new generation of networked consumers with big imaginations and even bigger appetites for innovation.
It’s not surprising that airlines’ passengers are craving a disruptive innovation---one that creates new solutions for their traveling needs and introduces a new onboard experience. They want something that captures the imagination and catalyzes change.
Intelligent IFE
There are literally billions of experiences being consumed and posted each year driving demand for air travel.
Intelligent IFE can tap into this rich pool of data to speak more personally to a passenger, recommend experiences, connect them with their destination, book a ride to their hotel, book destination activities, plan their next trip, suggest future flights and so much more.
Big Data has tremendous potential to enhance the inflight passenger experience to:
• Make the passenger feel more understood
• Create a more immersive experience
• Provide location info and travel services
• Gain insights into demand for flights
• Create direct and ancillary airline revenue
Do you want to leverage this rise in available data to create a competitive advantage that will leave other airlines behind? Contact crew@flightpath3d.com
