Technology, trust and collaboration will be key to creating a safe journey for air travellers and pave the way forward for airlines post Covid-19 is the view of Barbara Dalibard, CEO of SITA.
Speaking at the World Aviation Festival webinar last month, she said nobody would have guessed, a few months ago that we would be in this middle of this huge crisis. “And I think we need to really to challenge each of us every day to see how we can manage it.”
Barbara Dailbard says the future air traveller will be a mobile traveller.
Dalibard talked about SITA’s role in working with airlines, airports and governments in the new operating environment facing the airport transport industry as it emerges from the pandemic (details in the while paper from SITA at end of article).
The pandemic has had a dramatic impact on both the lives of people and the transport industry, she noted. As one of SITA’s business is to fly bags across the world she illustrated the drastic effect on the air transport from the number of bags carried. Within two months, the number of bags that are transported by the industry fell from 2.7 million to 35,000. Flight activity globally declined 80% year-on-year at end April. The sector that is doing reasonably well is cargo.
On what is going to change for the customers post Covid-19, Dalibard focused on three main areas – economic pressures, safety and security and sustainability. (see chart)
She said for an airline to survive it is about being efficient, how to save cost, how to manage customers and how to have the best usage of its assets. With safety and security on most consumers’ minds airlines will have to take care of their aircraft in a different way and clean them differently. Passengers too have to behave in a different way.
“So there is a lot of impact, and basically what we are trying to figure out is not easy because not everybody is aligned today on the new measures to be taken, and how we can implement the tools to enable this industry to go forward in the future.”
The virus outbreak has created more awareness for the environment and sustainability, and these are areas airlines have to pay more attention to.
Dalibard said the geopolitical impact is also on everyone’s mind because of this crisis. “And also because of the protectionism trend. Now, we see countries closing boundaries, of course, for good reasons, but also for perhaps less good reasons.” This will have an impact on the localisation of some industries and on cargo.
As the air journey transforms due to the impact of the pandemic, four scenarios are forecast post Covid-19
1. Touchless journey: The future air traveller will be a mobile traveller. “My mobile will be my remote control for traveling,” said Dalibard. This is the safest way to ensure that people do not have to touch any surfaces with the mobile doing as many things as possible, and self-bag drops for luggage. If anything need to be pressed the consumer can do it on their own mobile phone, rather the screens in airports.
2. Collaboration: To facilitate a traveller’s journey collaboration among industry players will be more important than ever “This is a business where everybody has to collaborate – the airport, the airlines and the government,” said Dalibard.
3. The connected aircraft: Given the pressure on sustainability airlines can support its customers by being more sustainable like creating apps that will enable pilots to check the weather, optimise their routine and ensure less fuel consumption. The connected aircraft will allow airlines to do more in terms of safety and security, as well as for the health of the passengers.
4. Blockchain: This tool will provides a “single source of truth” and ability to have multi-enterprise applications. It is also a safe platform for sharing customer information such as their biometric passport or perhaps their medical records if needed. It is also useful in sharing and collaborating across industry such as in flight information and management of bags or cargo.
SITA has released a white paper, “ A ‘New Normal’: The changing face of air transport post-COVID-19”, which provides the latest insights into the new operating environment facing the airport transport industry as it emerges from virus outbreak.
• Click on the photo below to read the full paper (PDF)
• Featured image credit: Jag_cz/Getty Images
