The basic physics of human flight were worked out more than a century ago. But the data variables of modern airline travel are infinite – and infinitely complex.
That’s certainly true for the reservations, personal information and baggage tracking for the nearly 11 million people around the world who are flying on any given day.
It’s just as true for the scheduling and maintenance data for the estimated 50,000 daily airline flights that carry those passengers.
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Keeping track of all that data, let alone gaining insights from it, is beyond the means of any one airline’s I.T. department.
It comes as no surprise that the airline industry’s most forward-thinking members have embraced a technology platform whose name just happens to suit their business: cloud computing.
Cloudy background
Cloud computing isn’t new, of course. But over the last decade, it has become ever more sophisticated.
The basic concept involves moving an organization’s computing and data-processing operation to the “cloud” – an agile off-site platform accessible anytime from anywhere, with voluminous capacity that can expand or contract as needed.
And it is operated by a big professional cloud provider like Amazon Web Services, Google or Microsoft, atop enterprise software systems from SAP, Oracle and others.
Moving to the cloud, as airlines including AirFrance-KLM and Malaysia Airways have done, can reduce the huge expense of operating a big in-house data system and staffing it with I.T. experts.
That means an airline, working with a strategic partner adept at tailoring cloud capabilities to the carrier’s needs, can focus on the data itself – and the insights the data can yield - to improve their businesses and provide better customer experiences.
These strategic partners can use sophisticated algorithms and artificial intelligence to extract insights from these potentially bewildering masses of data -- which is why the cloud-enabled business world has come be known as the Insight Economy.
Progress in the skies and on the ground
Last year Malaysia Airlines became the world’s first airline to move its entire data center to the cloud.
Instead of needing its own big mainframe and large Unix servers, as was necessary in the past, the airline can now throttle up or dial back the computing capacity as needed during different parts of the day, week or peak travel seasons.
For those 11 million daily airline passengers around the world, the real measure of the industry’s adoption of powerful data-handling capabilities are shorter lines, stress-free flights and on-time arrivals.
Krishna Mohan - TCS
And that capacity is available anytime, anywhere.
After Air France-KLM put its customer website into a public cloud, to support the high global volume of passengers searching flights and fares, business increased exponentially – both in terms of number of passengers flown and percentage of seats filled.
Other cloud-based applications include sending automated messages to passengers who use Twitter, Facebook or other social media platforms to provide status updates on flights and luggage.
By integrating their booking and reservation systems in the cloud, along with every customer’s immigration and security clearance details, some airlines that have made the switch have been able to reduce or eliminate long boarding queues at the gates through a self-boarding process, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.
Additionally, with customer data being cloud based, airlines can glean insights about their customers’ preferences and offer hyper-personalized services for seating preferences, in-flight entertainment, and duty free shopping.
The biggest key to passenger satisfaction, of course, is planes that take off and land on time, with no delays from mechanical problems. Here cloud computing is also the great enabler.
Alternative uses
Rolls Royce, a leading maker of jet engines for airliners, has developed a cloud platform that takes an Internet of Things approach to the data generated by the sensors it places on its engine and related equipment.
This enables airlines and their maintenance teams and suppliers to better track engine performance and servicing requirements, helping keep the 7,000 Rolls Royce-equipped aircraft worldwide in the air instead of on the tarmac.
And the cloud will give Rolls Royce the flexibility to keep innovating and using insights gleaned from artificial intelligence and machine learning over the 20-year lives of its engines.
For those 11 million daily airline passengers around the world, the real measure of the industry’s adoption of powerful data-handling capabilities are shorter lines, stress-free flights and on-time arrivals.
For the cloud-computing airline, success means orchestrating all this information so harmoniously that the only thing the customer notices is a happy trip.