Page 62 - World Airnews September 2020 Edition

NEWS DIGITAL

INNOVATION IS THE KEY TO

AIRLINE RECOVERY IN A COVID

WORLD

By Maher Koubaa, Amadeus Executive Vice President Airlines,
Middle East, Africa and Turkey

rethink the future of the industry together, or even prohibited, and it is therefore
innovation will be key to overcome the understandable that travellers will be
From tsunamis to ash clouds and global challenges and emerge stronger from the hesitant or anxious to board a flight in
financial crises, the travel industry has crisis. this new COVID world. To rebuild traveller
seen its share of setbacks over the past Looking to the future, we foresee a trust, it is imperative that airlines address
few years. The industry has always handled number of potential trends for the aviation these fears while they continue to focus on
these events with admirable resilience and industry. Innovation through solutions like delivering a seamless traveller experience.
managed to bounce back quickly from each Amadeus Airline Platform, a mission-crit- Technology lies at the heart of this goal.
disaster. ical platform that forms the technology Through innovative solutions like the
Altéa PSS, customer preferences can be
backbone for airlines, can help carriers
COVID-19 is different. The global better position themselves for a prosperous addressed at every stage of the reservation
pandemic has had an unparalleled and future. process, as airlines can use secure custom-
devastating impact on the aviation industry The Amadeus Airline Platform connects er data to customize services. For passen-
with airlines grounding their entire fleets together Amadeus’ comprehensive offering gers, this means faster and simpler check-in
for months. Over 60% of flights were for airlines, including the revolutionary procedures as well as re-accommodation in
cancelled worldwide, with bookings in Altéa Passenger Service System (PSS). a matter of seconds in times of disruption.
April 2020 alone dropping a staggering Underpinned by big data analytics, machine During the current period of uncertainty,
95% compared to the same month the learning algorithms, and cloud computing, relevant real-time information is more
previous year, and 75 million jobs are said the platform enables airlines to harness important than ever before. Amadeus
to be at risk. Yet there is light at the end of the full power of Amadeus technology to technology allows airlines to support
the tunnel as some countries have started inspire, travelers and grow their business. customers throughout the journey,
to open their borders and air travel is providing real-time, personalized alerts to
tentatively resuming. inform of flight changes, services or offers.
Although the future is uncertain for
everyone – and especially for those in the FOCUS ON DELIVERING A
travel industry – history teaches us that FRICTIONLESS TRAVELLER EXPERIENCE
change is inevitable and unavoidable. As we Simple activities in our lives like a trip to IMPROVE AIRLINE SYSTEMS TO
see a cautious return to the skies, and we the grocery store are now difficult, risky, ALLOW FOR AGILITY

World Airnews | September Extra 2020
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