‘Tech revolution enables airlines to capitalise on strong demand’
Passenger numbers may be up to 2019 levels, but the technology revolution seen in the past five years means airlines are in a stronger position to support the influx of travellers, and their increased expectations, across their entire journey.
Ashley Seed, Chief Operating Officer at CMAC Group, explains how innovation has progressed in emergency and scheduled ground transportation and accommodation.
The pandemic put the pause button on travel, and although it placed a huge strain on aviation and travel businesses worldwide, it allowed the entire industry to take stock and reassess longstanding processes and systems. With travel grounded, it was crucial to use this time effectively.
Since then, effort was put in across the transport ecosystem to make passengers confident to travel. Hotels increased self-check in services, private transport providers upped their GPS capabilities, and in the case of CMAC, we explored ways to support air passengers during disruption incidents.
CMAC entered the aviation market in 2009. Initially, the company made substantial investments in personnel and infrastructure to provide round-the-clock support to our client partners, handling all requests through phone calls, emails and even faxes.
However, over the past four to five years, technology has been the driving force behind our evolution.
The team developed a suite of digital disruption management solutions that offer our client partners a seamless online experience for managing disruptions across their networks. The technological advancements in the ground transport and accommodation sectors have enabled CMAC to vastly improve the visibility and efficiency of disruption solutions. These improvements include features mentioned earlier, such as instant hotel room bookings with a single click and live GPS tracking of ground transport.
Further technology advancements allowed us to remove friction in the customer journey and deliver a safe, seamless and efficient experience for airlines requiring transportation for passengers during a period of disruption, or to transport its staff to and from the airport. This involved eliminating unnecessary processes, leveraging available technology and implementing instant communication
and service recovery steps. One key feature developed during this period was our self-service solution, SmartLinks.
SmartLinks allows airline customers or crew to book their own ground transportation and accommodation while keeping airlines in control of spend, locations and usage. It enables carriers to respond instantly to rapidly unfolding disruptive incidents, ensuring passengers and crew are cared for within minutes.
Another development seen is flexibility in technology connectivity. Many carriers have evolved their inhouse capabilities since 2020 to streamline internal processes, meaning current supplier offerings needed to adapt.
For CMAC, depending on the complexity, airlines typically integrate our API within four to 12 weeks. However, we have seen much quicker traction in cases where there is an urgent need, and the solution is a simple plug-and-play integration.
Innovation is a constant for aviation and wider transport industries, and the advancements made since 2020 have all had one main aim – to make travel smoother, simpler and stress-free for passengers, which can only be a good thing. CMAC’s aviation customer base includes over 40 carriers, such as Ryanair, TUI, Jet2, Swissport, Menzies, Aegean and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
