In other airline industry news this week…

• Air New Zealand was named Airline of the Year by Air Transport World Magazine as part of its 38^th Airline Industry Achievement Awards. ATW bestowed the honor to NZ due to “industry-leading innovation and motivation of its staff which resulted in exceptional performance across market position, customer service, financial performance, fiscal management and operational safety.” The only U.S. carrier to receive an award was Alaska Airlines – the Joseph S. Murphy Industry Service Award – for service benefitting the airline industry and being involved in numerous environmental and corporate-giving initiatives.
• United Airlines, read Continental Airlines, received a lot of heat this week for their numerous amount of flights from Europe to the East coast that have recently required fuel stops due to unusually strong headwinds. The Wall Street Journal reports that United confirmed 43 flights operated with Boeing 757 aircraft had to stop for fuel last month due to the winds and limited range of the aircraft, up sharply from 12 the year earlier. That caused delays and misconnections for thousands of passengers and brought using the limited range jet into question. To the airline’s credit, though, the headwinds are the most extreme they’ve seen in the past 10 years.
• American Airlines will cut their Chicago-New Delhi nonstop March 1^st and totally withdraw from Burbank effective February 9^th, as well as lay off 150 employees citing “operational and business changes” resulting from its bankruptcy filing. The carrier is also hoping to delay their lawsuit against Sabre, a GDS, by three months while it focuses on reorganization. The still separate regional entity American Eagle, meanwhile, has hired Bain & Co. – to the tune of $525,000 per month – to assist in labor-cost assessment and negotiations.
• Tony Webber, a former Qantas executive, has boldly come out and proclaimed, “People weighing more than average should pay more for their airfares than slimmer passengers.” Ouch. He claims the extra fuel needed comes out to about $472 per plane and is affecting the airlines’ profits. As it stands, the airlines have an average weight they predict per passenger and while I don’t remember the figure from my days in Flight Dispatch with United Airlines, I do recall it being awfully low. Instead of an airfare increase, airlines need to up their average passenger weights and adjust their loads accordingly. Would you step on a scale at an airport?
• Horrible airplane etiquette continues in 2012 with a 65-year old man having been arrested for allegedly assaulting a Delta Air Lines flight attendant on a Tokyo to Honolulu flight. He was forced to surrender his passport and stay on Oahu to appear at a hearing on January 20^th. His bad behavior was apparently due to over imbibing on multiple glasses of wine.
• Southwest Airlines will launch a daily flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles beginning June 10^th. This is in addition to AirTran’s existing three daily flights already in the market. Southwest officially launches service February 12^th with 15 daily nonstops to five cities: Baltimore, Chicago (MDW), Denver, Houston (HOU) and Austin. Las Vegas and Phoenix service from Atlanta commences March 10^th.
• Finally, Hawaiian Airlines set a new company record for the most passengers carried in a single year – 8,666,319 in 2011 – a 17% increase from 2010. I imagine 2012 will be another record year as the airline continues to expand on the mainland with new service to JFK beginning in June.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is about to begin a major realignment that will purportedly cost the airport and airlines upwards of $100 million during the next two-years. It will basically uproot and relocate every carrier’s current terminal lobby locations and gate areas.

The dynamic nature of the airline industry, with new entrants, consolidations and defunct carriers, along with the rise and fall of demand among those carriers that service SEA has necessitated this rather significant project. Twenty years ago United Airlines was the dominant carrier at the airport, but due to their reduction of service and the expansion by Alaska Airlines, its subsidiaries and contract carriers, Alaska now carries 51 percent of the market share.

Image courtesy: Port of Seattle/Sea-Tac Airport

As such, United no longer needs its exclusive presence of the North Satellite terminal and now many Alaska flights lease United’s unwanted N-gates. Alaska also currently operates gates in the C and D concourses. Their desire is to move nearly their entire operation to the more spacious North Terminal while retaining needed space on the C concourse.

As United merges with Continental Airlines, the combined carrier will move to the A concourse as Continental vacates its current location on the B concourse. Also, the AirTran and Southwest Airlines merger will see them relocate from the A concourse to saddle up next to Southwest’s current location on the B concourse.

It’s a dizzying array of shifting around and will obviously have to be well choreographed. Here are the tentative plans:

• AirTran’s move from A to B has already been completed, and they’ve co-located with Southwest already in the ticketing lobby.
• Mid-2013: American Airlines and JetBlue will move from A to D and Frontier will move from A to B.
• Late-2013: Both Hawaiian and Virgin America move from A to B, opening up the A concourse for the big move of United-Continental.
• Once United has fully vacated the North Satellite, Alaska is planning to remodel the space along with the portion they’re keeping on the A concourse.

For international flights operating out of SEA, the South Satellite is nearly to capacity and the airport’s director of operations, Mike Ehl, said “the airport can handle perhaps two more foreign flights at the South Satellite before it has to consider changing the international operations.”

The article I sourced this material from linked above and again here then brought to light the efficiencies of common-use ticketing areas and gates. In September I listened in to a webinar hosted by Air Transport World discussing the significant advantages of having such a layout, possibly even airport-wide. Santa Ana Airport (SNA) aka John Wayne Orange County Airport has implemented a nearly perfect version of this “Airport of the Future.”

Image couresy ATW & IATA

Basically, as our mobile technology and that at the airlines and airports advance, the check-in experience at any airport could eventually turn the question of “Where’s my airline check-in terminal or desk?” to “Where is the nearest kiosk?” Common-use kiosks are already found at many airports allowing check-in with a variety of airlines and more and more gate areas can be used by a variety of airlines. The future will also bring the wide-scale ability to self-bag-tag our bags and drop them off at designated locations. Roaming airline-specific agents would still of course be necessary, but I know as our technology improves, the constraints airports like Sea-Tac are facing today will be diminished.

I see some of the “smaller” airports like SEA and SNA, and even larger ones such as Orlando (MCO) being ideal given their layouts for being among the first candidates for this “Airport of the Future” redesign. Others, such as Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles International are far more Terminal driven with uniquely separate areas that would be more challenging to evolve into such a layout.

Until the future is here, though, airports like Sea-Tac and the airlines within will continually need to oversee multi-million dollar relocation projects.

I listened in to another Air Transport World webinar last week discussing how mobile technology will transform the future of air travel, and I offer up some of my notes below. The full presentation, including audio and slides, can be found here.

The advent of smartphones has created a world where we can literally search, book and manage our flights on the go with many airlines offering their own apps and/or mobile versions of their website. A recent survey revealed that 16% of travelers currently use smartphones to book trips, and that figure will increase dramatically over time according to Norm Rose of Travel Tech Consulting, one of the speakers. Some other interesting stats:

• The number of worldwide subscriptions for wireless services reached 5 billion in September 2010.
• The worldwide smartphone market grew 79.7% year over year in the first quarter of 2011.
• 73.4% of the Earth’s population subscribes to wireless services.
• One third of frequent flyers and one quarter of 18-34 year olds use smartphones and tablets for booking compared to 16% for total travelers. Here’s a bit more detail for the groups with their definition of “frequent flyer” as those having taken eight or more trips (what lightweights!).

The mobility we enjoy today with airline apps and mobile websites is fantastic, but what does the future hold? A J.D Power survey provided a list of functions airlines are either currently developing or have under consideration and asked travelers which they might use. Here are the results:

I was surprised the percentages weren’t higher for mobile check-in and flight status updates given their widespread use today. It shows, though, that traditional channels to complete those functions are still in the majority today. The sale of ancillary services via smartphones will likely become reality as the years pass according to the presenters, but are currently processed the majority of time online with mobile devices accounting for only 1.4% of transactions as seen below:

Some of the constraints to bring full service functionality to our mobile devices include integration issues with airline IT systems, cost of development, fragmentation of platforms and mobile operating systems, and the simple fact that not everyone has a smartphone. Full feature phones are still widely used and most can’t necessarily support some of the advanced functions smartphone apps allow.

The panelists believe we’ll see several new developments go live within the next couple of years, including mobile electronic e-vouchers for airline disservice, airport coupon offers delivered to your phone based on your location in the airport and enhanced & immediate social media responsiveness where a carrier resolves an issue within minutes of contact via Twitter or Facebook, for example. Possibly in five years time we’ll see widespread use of near field communication mobile boarding, mobile payments and interactive video and voice command applications.

It’s an exciting era we’re entering with technology enabling continuous engagement between airlines and travelers across all aspects of the travel life cycle – from pre-trip planning through post-trip feedback and reviews. I look forward to the advancements, but think the timeline for some of the services discussed will be further down the road than presented. Attendees were asked a few instant survey questions during the hour-long webcast, which I think shows why we might not see such advancements as quickly.

We’ll get there and while it might be slower than hoped among the presenters, I look forward to the efficiency our mobile devices will bring to the air travel experience. It’s simply amazing what we can do today compared to when I began flying regularly. I used mobile check-in for my latest United Airlines trip and will certainly continue to do so in the future. How do you check-in for flights today and what features would you like to see added to existing mobile technologies?

Yesterday I listened in on another Air Transport World webinar discussing the technology we interact with as travelers at the airport. The specific focus was to outline how common use stations, such as the kiosks we use to check in and the terminals airline agents use for the same functions, can speed travel, reduce airline & airport costs and offer additional synergies benefiting everyone involved. Entitled “One Platform, Many Advantages,” the four main speakers reviewed the technology and explored future potentials and current gaps in a seamless passenger flow. It will be available for anyone to listen to shortly by visiting this link. In the meantime, I’ll summarize some of the key points.

First up is the jargon for which I was unfamiliar until yesterday, but fully recognize having used them at airports. They are CUPPS, CUTE and CUSS (no, not that kind).

CUPPS: Common Use Passenger Processing Systems

CUTE: Common Use Terminal Equipment

CUSS: Common Use Self Service

In my understanding, CUPPS covers both CUTE, those terminals used by multiple airlines at the same airport, and CUSS, those kiosks used by you and me to check-in for a variety of airlines. In any case, it’s all referring to a single station being able to access more than just a single airline’s system.

The CUTE terminals have been around for 15-20 years where multiple airlines can use the same check-in locations and still access the airline’s proprietary system to process check-in for passengers. This is very common at the international terminals of just about every airport where dedicated stations for an airline operating one or two flights just doesn’t make sense. One hour Cathay Pacific could be using check-in desks 10-19 and two hours later Emirates would be using the same positions to check-in their passengers.

Last week I saw a number of CUSS kiosks in the International Terminal at San Francisco Airport where you could check-in for any number of airlines at a single unit. John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California is another airport using CUSS stations for multiple airlines, where in this case the airlines are flying all domestic trips. Instead of “where’s my airline’s check-in desk” when you walk into an airport, it’ll become “where’s the nearest kiosk?”

Basically, the technology is pointing to a nearly airline agent-free traveler experience with everything done by “self;” check-in, bag tagging, document scanning, flight rebooking, boarding and bag recovery. Here it is pictorially:

Image courtesy IATA & ATW

It was pointed out that gaps remain where human interaction remains necessary like at security and immigration & customs, and of course not everyone has bought into many of the newest abilities like self-bag tagging or self-boarding gates. It’s right around the corner, though, isn’t it? Also, our mobile devices will become a critical part of this future with 3D bar codes scanned from our phones needed to use some of these devices.

The first encounter I usually have flying domestically with an airline agent is when my boarding pass is scanned at the gate when I get on the plane. The picture painted here is that as soon as the automated baggage & boarding gates come out, a flight attendant will be the first actual airline employee of contact. It’s all but likely going forward, so front-line staffing for airlines at airports will do nothing but continue to drop.

One of the slides quoted a survey where 73 percent of respondents “said they would be more likely to choose a travel provider that offered them greater control over managing their entire travel experience through self-service.” Count me as one of them. Here’s the results from another similar poll in 2011:

Image courtesy NCR & ATW

Another chart I found interesting is as follows. It shows the opportunities airport vendors have to attract passengers during their down time traversing airport terminals:

Image courtesy NCR & ATW

I look forward to more self-service kiosks handling some of the agent-driven activities today, but will still always want a human available. Their numbers will drop exponentially as this technology gains acceptance, but it’s the likely future of our airport experience. What do you think? Too “Jetsons” for you, or does this fully self-serving automation appeal to you, too?

Yesterday I listened into another webcast from Air Transport World entitled “Responsive Airlines: Secrets to Real-Time Visibility and Control.” The theme of this hour long discussion surrounded around how airlines can better manage internal systems & processes when a service disruption occurs, and the steps necessary to get back on track through enhanced technology all while minimizing the impact to the customer.

Everyone who’s flown knows a number of things have to go right for a smooth travel experience. From good weather, adequately maintained aircraft and functional air traffic control systems to fully staffed flights with rested crews that deliver your baggage quickly upon arrival, it can seem almost effortless when everything goes right. That’s what all the systems & processes at an airline are designed to do: get us from point A to point B with systemic precision.

On the other hand when one small change or other disruption occurs, that ideal travel experience can quickly erode into a nightmare for both the airline and traveling customer. A need exists then for airlines to better prepare & respond to real-time events as they occur, and have systems & processes in place to enable a smoother recovery from such events.

Here are some of the highlights from the presentations by David McEwan of IATA (the International Air Transport Association), and Joshua Norrid & David Olsen of Progress Software Corporation:

• Airlines need to ensure efficient & consistent irregular operations (IRROPS) procedures.
• Several ticketing & rebooking resolutions are in place, although compliance with these standards of practice varies. One example is when a passenger is rebooked onto another airline day-of-departure than that originally ticketed, the receiving airline should be called to confirm the space appearing in the global distribution system (GDS).
• The original carrier a passenger is ticketed on when a disruption occurs bears the responsibility to reissue the ticket (typically converting an e-ticket into a physical one) for processing by the new operating carrier.
• Approximately 95% of tickets today are electronic e-tickets.
• It can take up to two years for back-end processing & clearing of tickets when procedures aren’t followed as outlined. This means the revenue to/from the airlines in question can be in limbo for quite some time.
• The USA is unique in that our regulations don’t require the original fare basis code to be carried forward to the new carrier, whereas ex-USA carriers are required to match (via mapping) the re-accommodation into the proper bucket.
• Complexity in the industry is increasing, referring to service unbundling (ancillary products), regulatory mandates, mobile device availability and complex airline alliances & partnerships.
• Numerous systems (some rather antiquated) can bog down operational responsiveness to disruptions and newer technology overlays are needed to manage such events and the related transactions & processes as they happen in real time.
• One example of the above is the newer tarmac rule compliance requirement for aircraft sitting for extended periods of time going nowhere. It would be ideal for an overlay to exist that at say 45-minutes prior to needing to take an action, certain pre-defined processes are put into place to lessen the workload once the timeframe has been realized.
• Airlines tend to keep their own success stories in dealing with IRROPS processing close to their vest, not revealing successful strategies with the industry.
• Airlines need to better respond to passengers who’ve paid for a service upsell (e.g., buying Economy Plus seating on United) and then are unable to use that service when IRROPS occur.

The webcast went a bit deeper into each of the points above and provided a great perspective to what the airlines have to deal with during IRROPS that often passengers might take for granted. My intimate knowledge of the industry always keeps me level headed and understanding when I “suffer” disruptions to my own travel, and I’d recommend listening to the presentation and/or reviewing the slides found in this link.

This probably isn’t any consolation, however, to the numerous passengers impacted by weather in Dallas yesterday, and United is alerting that Chicago might see some disruptions due to storms today. Happy & safe flying everyone!