We’re still raving on about airlines taking control of their mobile experiences. It’s long overdue and pivotal to building a unique brand identity, increasing customer engagement and rejuvenating competitive edge.
But, unlike many other industries, airlines are required to take a different approach to digital transformation – mostly due to safety and regulatory concerns brought about by the pandemic.
What it now means is that there’s increasing urgency for safer processes and contactless experiences.
And what better way to get the ball rolling than with digital transformation and taking full control of your mobile experience?
Making Contactless the Norm
The benefits of a mobile device are plentiful.
They allow you to make faster bookings (and with far more convenience).
They act as a dynamic revenue channel to promote ancillaries and other services.
And they have a multitude of sensors and engagement technologies that enable you fine-grain control of the entire passenger experience.
Whether it’s a QR code, or an NFC that allows you to have these contactless experiences, the technology exists to simplify not only the passenger journey, but also the journey of the employee.
And as far as security is concerned, technologies such as biometric fingerprint scans and facial recognition enable these processes to remain safe and regulated. From ground operations all the way through to flight operations.
Where Can You Use These Contactless Experiences?
With our current state of affairs, it’s a no-brainer.
We don’t want to be touching a thing.
The entire check-in process should be free of any contact. The experience of paying for anything at the airport should be free of contact.
The boarding of a plane should be free of contact.
There is no reason why, if you need proof of identification, that it cannot be verified on a mobile device. Free of contact.
It’s all possible, because the technology exists.
We just need to start revisiting some of the governance. Some of the safety concerns that exist. The regulations that we put in place, because of our dependence on manual processes.
Think about it. You can now start tracking where the user is around the airport. As long as you ask for permission. But if you’re able to track where the passenger spends their time, you can start understanding crowd control, crowd flow, and managing that experience onto the plane boarding very differently.
The entire process of what it means to fly can be completely re-imagined, because we no longer rely on a paper ticket.
We no longer need to be putting in the systems, the gates and barriers in place to have the ability to manage a travel ticket.
Contactless experiences are going to redefine the experience for any passenger journey.
It’s just another reason to be thinking mobile-first.
