In the news: Airlines take the stage this week, not only in conferences around the region, but in touting new services for its guests. In the limelight – AirAsia, Hong Kong Airlines and, indirectly, Travelport and ACI with a new solution for airline passengers.
AVIATION: Everyone can now say ‘hi’ from the sky
Fly and connect on a Rokki flight
If you a traveller who likes to stay connected both on the ground and 10,000 feet in the sky, here’s some good news for you – low cost carrier AirAsia is giving free Internet access to its BIG (loyalty programme) members.
The airline said in a statement all BIG members now have a 2MB chats plan to access WhatsApp, WeChat, LINE, KakaoTalk and Viber apps when they fly on a Rokki-enabled flight.
Rokki is an in-flight entertainment and connectivity platform that offers guests free entertainment, music, games and news, as well as shopping features.
To enjoy this feature, BIG members only need to connect to Rokki WiFi during the flight and log in to the Rokki portal using their AirAsia BIG login details to automatically redeem the plan.
“Connectivity is integral to our lives, and this is something ROKKI understands implicitly. We hope that this free inflight Internet will help guests stay in touch with their friends and family and get the latest updates no matter where they are,” said Rokki CEO, Lalitha Sivanase.
There currently are 44 Rokki-enabled AirAsia aircrafts in service.
TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY: Hong Kong Airlines enlists Sabre to help increase efficiency
Hong Kong Airlines implementing Sabre’s technology (Image credit: Hong Kong Airlines)
Hong Kong Airlines has signed an agreement with Sabre to implement its Sabre AirCentre Crew technology, a solution for crew scheduling, management, services and analytics.
The carrier said its partnership with the technology company would help it increase efficiency both in the air and on the ground through greater connectivity between the aircraft, flight crew, and airline staff.
Once fully implemented, Sabre’s Crew Solutions will help reduce controllable delays by improving productivity related to scheduling; reduces costs by minimising crew overage; optimise better crew pairings, scheduling and tracking; and improve operational efficiency through real time tracking and communicating with crew.
Ben Wong, chief operating officer at Hong Kong Airlines, said a benchmark exercise demonstrated that Sabre AirCentre Crew Solutions could deliver savings due to a reduction in crew requirements, in comparison with the current pairing process.
“This demonstrates the immense added value that this new partnership with Sabre brings to Hong Kong Airlines,” he added.
RISK MANAGEMENT: Travelport and ACI team up to roll out fraud control solution
Travelport Authorize Plus minimises risk of cyber theft. (Image credit: BrianAJackson/ iStock- Getty Images)
The airline industry suffers losses of US$1 billion per year from cyber criminials using stolen, compromised or fake credit cards to buy airline tickets, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
To help minimise the risk of airline travellers from falling prey to these fraudsters Travelport has partnered with ACI Worldwide, provider of electronic banking and payment solutions, to launch an intelligent fraud control and settlement solution for its airline customers.
The solution, called Travelport Authorize Plus, enhances the travel commerce platform’s existing Card Payment Gateway by integrating with ACI’s ReD Shield platform. Part of the UP Payments Risk Management solution, ReD Shield delivers real-time, cloud-based multi-tiered fraud prevention for eCommerce merchants.
The integration will allow Travelport’s airline customers to track ticketing purchase processes right through to the completion of a journey. Additional features include the dynamic fraud screening of card payments used to purchase air tickets via Travelport-connected agents, the ability to flag and prevent ticket issuance, and detailed online management reports of all transactions and status.
“The major advantage of combining Travelport Authorize Plus with ACI ReD Shield is that we have built a fully integrated solution, which applies fraud control management without the need for both our airline and agent customers to do any major development or change their workflow process of today,” commented Derek Sharp, senior vice president and managing director of air commerce, Travelport.
• Featured image credit: AirAsia
