News Roundup: IATA’s 25by2025 campaign to address gender imbalance in airline industry, deeper NDC collaboration between Travelport and Singapore Airlines, booking Grab rides through FCM’s mobile app, Flight Centre Travel Group’s partnership with Troovo
Aviation: IATA unveils campaign to advance gender diversity in airline industry
(Image credit: LightFieldStudios/Getty Images)
There is currently no comprehensive gender diversity statistical report for the airline industry, but the International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates that women currently make up just 5% of the global pilot population and 3% of airline CEOs.
Stating that “the gender imbalance in the industry is clear”, and as part of its efforts to push for more airline female airline executives IATA has launched the 25by2025 campaign
Described as an airline industry initiative to promote gender diversity in the industry by 2025, it is a voluntary commitment by participating member airlines.
To date, China Eastern, Lufthansa Group and Qatar Airways have signed up to this campaign.
Among the commitments by participating airlines are to increase the number of women in senior positions by either 25% against currently reported metrics or to a minimum of 25% by 2025, and in under-represented jobs like pilots and operations within the same percentage and time frame.
Airlines taking part in the campaign will report annually on their progress.
On its part IATA has pledged to increase the percentage of women in its senior management from the current 19% to 25% by 2025. It will also work with airlines to increase the number of women they appoint to IATA governance roles from the current 17% to a minimum of 25%.
The association said it would ensure a minimum of 25% women panellists/speakers at its conferences by 2025. Additionally, it will create a forum for sharing diversity and inclusion initiatives and best practices across the industry and publish annual industry statistics on gender diversity
“Aviation is the business of freedom. An example of that is the freedom for 2.7 million women and men to develop exciting careers within this industry. But women are under-represented at senior levels and in some professions within airlines. Airlines understand the value that a diverse and gender-balanced workforce delivers,” said IATA director general and CEO Alexandre de Juniac.
“The 25by2025 campaign provides a global context and encouragement for the many initiatives our members are already taking to address the gender imbalance. I am confident that 25by2025 will be a major catalyst for progress – progress that will set the industry up to achieve even more in this important area.
He added IATA’s work would not be done in 2025, as the aim is to have “a 50-50 gender split with equal opportunities for everyone in every part of our industry.”
Technology: Travelport, Singapore Airlines reinforce NDC collaboration
(Image credit – inflight enterrtainment in SIA 777-300ER aircraft : Singapore Airlines)
Two weeks ago, Sabre announced its collaboration with Singapore Airlines (SIA) in the latter’s expansion of the KrisConnect programme – the airline’s initiative to leverage IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard.
The Singapore carrier now also has Travelport on board as the technology company has also implemented SIA’s Kris Connect programme.
Damian Hickey, global vice president & global head of air travel partners, briefed representatives of around 200 agencies on Travelport’s NDC implementation roadmap for SIA at the recent launch of the airline’s expanded KrisConnect in the city state.
He also offered a preview of the intuitive new NDC-enabled process which agencies can soon expect, as Travelport prepares to launch the next phase of its NDC delivery shortly.
“As one of the first Asian airlines to begin exploring new distribution capabilities we are very pleased to have been working hand-in-hand with Singapore Airlines since the start of its journey,” commented Hickey.
“Close collaboration with the agency community is crucial to the smooth delivering of a complex process like NDC; and we will continue to partner SIA and the wider travel industry to deliver travellers an elevated, personalised booking experience.”
SIA was one of the first airlines in Asia Pacific to take advantage of the NDC technology when it launched the KrisConnect programme last October. The programme leverages Application Program Interface (API) technology, including the NDC standards, to extend booking, servicing and information functionalities to external parties.
Travelport has been working extensively with SIA since Kris Connect’s launch to integrate its NDC content, ahead of general availability from April 2020.
Functionality is expected to be launched through Travelport’s NDC-enabled points-of-sale, starting with initial pilots with a small group of agency customers in the coming months.
Agencies connecting to KrisConnect through Travelport will gain access to customised offerings that are tailored to customers’ needs and preferences.
SIA will also be able to offer agencies a wider range of fares and other content from April 2020. This will be delivered through “an intuitive, user-friendly interface integrated into the Travelport systems they are already familiar with,” said Travelport.
Partnership: Now you can Grab rides through FCM’s Sam app
Global travel management company FCM Travel Solutions has signed a partnership with Grab to make it easier for clients to book the ride-hailing service in South-east Asia.
Business travellers can now book Grab rides via FCM’s Smart Assistant for Mobile (Sam) app across seven countries in South-east Asia – Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.
FCM said that as Grab’s first partner to provide “seamless and convenient on-demand ground transportation via an app” it will provide clients with additional ground transportation options as soon as they arrive at a destination.
“When a traveller arrives at a new destination, Sam will notify them about the traffic situation from their current location to their destination and ask if they would like to ‘request a ride’”, said Robert Ramos, FCM’s technology lead for Asia. “In just a few clicks, FCM travellers with Sam app will be able to get to their destination hassle-free.”
Added Bertrand Saillet, FCM’s managing director of Asia: “Ground transportation is an important aspect of every business trip, and many are familiar with Grab in Southeast Asia, so to be able to offer this value proposition to FCM clients through this partnership is significant for us.”
FCM has more than 51,000 travellers from close to 1900 national and multinational companies currently using Sam. The app has an average of over 20,000 active users per month, according to the company.
Payments: Troovo Technologies is Flight Centre’s new global payment technology partner
Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), Australia’s largest retail travel outlet, has selected Sydney-based Troovo Technologies as its global provider for automation of B2B payments.
In announcing the partnership the company said Troovo Payments, “the world’s only digital and virtual payment processing platform powered by Robotic Process Automation (RPA)”, would integrate its robotic engine to enable “invisible payments” across all FCTG’s systems and platforms.
“This will create a highly secure, completely automated and totally touch-free solution for payments made to FCTG’s suppliers,” it added.
The collaboration will see a number of FCTG’s business units worldwide deploying Troovo within their operational and payment process flows over the coming months.
The aim, from 2020 onwards, is to deploy a “global payment switch” within the travel group that will see supplier payments routed through and processed by Troovo.
“Troovo gives us flexibility and scalability on a global basis and we are really excited to be working with Troovo to use its unique and innovative RPA solution to achieve our objectives for efficiency, cost-savings and revenue optimisation,” remarked Richard Humphreys, FCTG’s global treasurer.
“Flight Centre Travel Group has always pushed the envelope around new ways of thinking about its business and giving new technology a go, and we are thrilled to partner with the company to help it achieve its payment objectives,” said Troovo co-founder and CEO Kurt Knackstedt.
Troovo, a virtual payment processing system for the corporate travel industry, was the winner of the WiT 2017 Startup Pitch.
• Featured image credit: Image Source/Getty Images
