Finnair has launched a chatbot via Facebook Messenger to help passenger book flights, check status and find additional information on the airline.
The "Finn" chatbot, which has been developed with the help of Caravelo which builds multi-language chat assistants, will offer English initially with Finnish and Chinese to come later this year.
The chatbot is also built using IATA's NDC standard to enable bookings and payment via Messenger.
Finnair has made some interesting moves recently including its introduction of Alipay in January and a facial recognition trial for check-in, launched in May.
The Finnair announcement stands out for a number of reasons.
Firstly, the airline is building on its use of the NDC standard following its pilot with Skyscanner earlier this year enabling passengers to complete their booking on the metasearch engine.
At the time, Finnair's vice president of distribution Rogier van Enk said technology enabled Finnair to sell flights and ancillaries through intermediaries as well as opening up opportunities to work with startups ups.
It's also an interesting step with regards to China and the airline says it will look to bring the Finn chatbot to platforms such as WeChat.
The airline said recently it was undergoing cultural change to make it more agile in a bid to stay ahead of the game.
Its chief commercial officer Juha Järvinen talked of being where its customers are and widening the airline's remit.
He also said the airline needed to be awake to the strength of channels such as Google and WeChat and how much they know about customers.
The chatbot can be accessed here.
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