In the news: Airlines are in the limelight this week – Lufthansa’s mobile boarding pass in Bangkok, Amadeus’ flight management solution for Virgin Australia, Japan Airlines’ AXESS and Travelport’s new agency desktop
Lufthansa’s mobile boarding pass lands in Bangkok
Lufthansa’s passengers in Bangkok can now board flights with the mobile pass. (Image credit: Prykhodov/iStock)
The Lufthansa Group of airlines – Lufthansa German Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines – have brought the mobile boarding pass to Bangkok.
Passengers of the three airlines travelling to Europe from Bangkok can now board their flights with the mobile boarding pass. They receive the pass after mobile check-in, and also after online check-in on request. It is sent directly to the smartphone by email, via SMS, or as an in-app message,
iPhone owners can store the pass in the Wallet/Passbook.
The pass contains flight data such as the passenger’s name, flight number and departure time, as well as an AZTEC barcode that allows the passenger to pass through the airport’s security checkpoints and proceed straight to the departure gate.
At the gate a scanner reads the pass, enabling the passenger to board the aircraft without a printed paper boarding pass. If the gate changes, the pass updates automatically with the new gate information.
Passengers who store their boarding pass in their app can also make use of the new travel assistant, which appears on the home screen and shows all relevant flight information such the status of the flight or a boarding countdown. They are informed through a message on changes in gate or departure times.
The Lufthansa Group’s mobile boarding pass is available on all routes from Germany, and is used by more than 17 million passengers. It is also available at other Asian airports such as Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.
Virgin Australia chooses Amadeus for flight management
It’s Amadeus’ solution for Virgin Australia’s flight management. (Image credit: commons.wikimedia.org)
Virgin Australia has adopted Amadeus Altéa Departure Control Flight Management (Altéa DC-FM) to help with its flight management.
This makes it the first time the solution is delivered as a standalone component to an airline that is not using the Amadeus Altéa Suite, Amadeus’ airline Passenger Service System (PSS).
Altéa DC-FM will automate Virgin Australia’s aircraft load control and optimise flight departures, integrating with their current PSS.
The key benefits of the solution are optimising fuel consumption, reducing the cost of delays, and improving safety. (Details here).
Amadeus and Virgin Australia will build an interface to integrate with the airline’s current passenger service system.
Andrew Lillyman, Virgin Australia’s general manager of network operations, said: “Achieving optimal aircraft load distribution is key to safety of flight, improving fuel efficiency, optimising cargo and increasing productivity.”
Hazem Hussein, executive vice president, airline commercial of Amadeus Asia Pacific, added that implementing Altéa DC-FM as a standalone solution to its existing PSS “opens the doors to any carrier who is looking for a best-in-class weight and balance solution without wanting to go through a full migration to a new passenger service system, allowing them to adopt a best-of-breed strategy to empower their PSS.”
The Altéa DC-FM solution is currently used by more than 90 airlines and ground handlers.
A new agency desktop from AXESS and Travelport
New partnership
AXESS International Network (AXESS), the leading Japanese global distribution system (GDS) owned by Japan Airlines (JAL), and Travelport are jointly rolling out a new enhanced agency desktop in Japan.
The upgraded agency desktop, AXESS CREA Advance, will replace AXESS’ current CREA desktop. It will be made available exclusively to AXESS-connected travel agents.
It will be powered by Travelport Smartpoint, Travelport’s point of sale technology that offers extensive air, hotel and car content as well as a broad range of user-friendly merchandising features.
AXESS has also partnered with Travelport to launch a new business travel management solution, powered by Locomote technology, to meet the needs of the Japanese business traveller.
Locomote is a smart technology platform that gives companies complete control and visibility of their corporate travel, making travel management easier and more efficient and giving Japanese companies access to the business travel management platform, on any device, anywhere in the world.
The overall AXESS GDS platform will continue to be hosted as part of Travelport’s state-of-the-art technology infrastructure in its Atlanta (US) data centre.
“Launching a new agency desktop for AXESS with all of the benefits it offers Japan’s travel trade, represents a great milestone in the technology partnership between AXESS and Travelport and opens the pathways for further opportunities in the future,” said Mark Meehan, president and managing director for Travelport Asia Pacific.
AXESS-connected travel agents will migrate to the new AXESS point of sale solution in a phased manner, following a period of customer testing and training, with completion scheduled for 2017.
