23rd November, 2021
It is time airlines redefine the traditional notion of connectivity and services associated with it. Airlines should look beyond merely “internet” connectivity.
This is because Internet connectivity is “largely the preserve of the big “supercarriers” and the vast majority of airlines and narrow-body aircraft around the world still do not have the ability to connect via satellite”, pointed out Vimal Rai, EVP Global Sales & Marketing, AirFi during the recently held Ai’s Ancillary Merchandising Conference: Revenue Management and Inflight Product.
Rai added, “People love their devices and (love to) explore, play, shop etc. on them. That needs to be the new definition of connectivity.”
“We believe every passenger should be empowered in-flight; every passenger should be able to do all the things in-flight that they do on ground, even without full Internet connectivity,” said Rai.
Personal devices should be the pivotal force supporting the entire experience.
Airlines need to simplify accessibility to their inflight portal (via a platform that is browser-based). We are now in a time when passengers are expecting touchless interactions: so imagine ordering the food, beverages or services you desire on your mobile phone, with the crew getting an alert on their tablets and then having everything served to you at your seat, while payment is made via your mobile device. Rai mentioned that the conversation around passenger experience generally tends to revolve around products like seats and hardware.
The focus needs to shift to effectively engaging passengers in a personalized way. He said a select few forward-thinking airlines are working on precisely this vision.
Capitalizing on the data opportunity
As for capitalizing on data from connectivity, Rai said that since passengers are using their own devices, one can track “what they looked at, what they abandoned, what they clicked on, how long they dwelled on something etc.” This valuable passenger and crew data is being delivered as insights by the team at AirFi.
Elaborating on the same, Rai said, “Behavioural data, transactional data, browsing data, intent data plus the opposite of each one of these i.e. all the choices passengers did not pick or click (must be evaluated). The logical extension to this is enabling pre-orders and in-seat ordering of products and services.” He said, “All of this is only possible when you’re offering democratised access via personal devices, not high-priced, gated access to a small percentage of flyers in an aircraft. Airlines can use this intelligence to flip the script: instead of a crew-pushed service offerings, a passenger-pulled model can be enabled. Airlines can subsequently use the data to develop and offer more products that people actually want, thereby cutting back on wastage (F&B) and establishing more direct-to-passenger relationships.”
Contextual advertising with calls-to-action
If airlines can show relevant ads to passengers, that would be ideal. “Currently airlines show adverts from anyone who is willing to pay for the advertising. So you see adverts from tourism bodies, hotels, internal airline advertising, expensive luxury brands etc. But crucially, they lack an effective, actionable call to action. There is zero potential to move from attention to transaction. As a result what do passengers do? They skip!” mentioned Rai.
He referred to a couple of things that can be done: First, look at in-destination products and services. “More than 80% of passengers are booking tours and attractions online when they are already in-city, i.e. within 24hrs. So clearly this is one major signal of buying intent that advertisers can take advantage of,” said Rai.
Second, airlines should actually advertise their own inflight product, merchandise and F&B, with a real calls-to-action to book immediately, perhaps for a discount or for value-added propositions like loyalty miles. “Think lounge, seat upgrades for the return, flash discounts for merchandise being carried, etc. Airlines need to look at best-case advertising from e-commerce retailers that work today and adapt that to inflight advertising,” concluded Rai.
Conclusion
Ultimately, the best inflight experience is one that is relevant and contextualised to the expectations and needs of each individual passenger. The first step to enabling this is empowering passengers to choose for themselves using their own personal devices while in-flight.
By Ritesh Gupta
Ai Team
