One of the most consistent comments about airline travel over the past couple of decades is that the quality of the passenger experience has only gotten worse. Whether it is more seats being crammed onto an aircraft, oversold flights, or increasing use of ancillary charges such as bag check fees, passengers have had little to cheer about. Yet one major airline, the relatively young Dubai-based Emirates, has aimed to buck this trend by focusing on providing a high-quality passenger experience. The airline is focusing digital technology efforts around speeding travel time, investing in new research on passenger habits, and improving ground infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Most passengers dread the notification that an airplane has entered a holding pattern due to airspace and landside congestion. The issue emerges due to requirements for how much distance aircraft must keep from each other, limiting runway throughput at key peak times. Poor airspace management could cost Middle Eastern carriers up to $16 billion over the next decade if they fail to address the challenge[i]<\/a>. Emirates and other Middle Eastern airlines are thus working extensively with the air traffic controllers to improve the use of technology and data sharing between entities, allowing air traffic controllers to better track airplanes operating in closer vicinity to one another, and thus increase overall airspace throughput[ii]<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Emirates moved into its new dedicated Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport, it came with one of the most sophisticated baggage handling systems to date. The system, leveraging over 800 RFID scanners and 90 kilometers of baggage carousels, is capable of handling 15,000 bags per hour[iii]<\/a>. The reality is that Emirates and its baggage system is not quite meeting passenger expectations however, according to the influential Skytrax<\/em> ratings[iv]<\/a>. The airline thus has scope to improve its offering here in collaboration with the company managing the Dubai Airport, likely through the use of even better baggage tracking and processing efforts, and emergent systems that allow passengers to track baggage in real time[v]<\/a>.<\/p>\n More recently, Emirates has also begun to look into more theoretical ways of enhancing service efficiency and improving the customer experience. The airline has launched a Data Science Lab at Oxford University as part of a five-year partnership. The goal is to apply Emirates data and expertise from Oxford\u2019s mathematics, engineering, and social science faculty to analyze data, develop machine learning techniques, and better understand how customers interact with the airline[vi]<\/a>. The collaboration could provide Emirates with industry-leading insight on passengers, and better capabilities to process their own data in the future.<\/p>\n Looking forward, there are a number of next steps for the airline, as it looks to burnish its premium credentials. Airlines already collect considerable data on passengers across the booking and trip experience, and through frequent flyer programs such as Emirates\u2019 Skywards <\/em>program. Emirates could begin using this data to enhance the personalization of the experience \u2013 pushing alerts and updates, integrate biometric data to speed border control, personalizing duty free alerts, and selling key services on the airplane, among others[vii]<\/a>. Emirates has already begun moving in this direction through its basic trip management smartphone app, and recently launched an additional app that allows passengers from non-visa on arrival countries to apply for a UAE visa[viii]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Emirates has succeeded in building a very well-known and regarded brand, and has rapidly emerged as one of the largest airlines on the planet. Future prospects remain very bright, should the airline succeed in even further enhancing its data analytics and leverage that increasing insight to improve the overall customer experience. For Emirates, time remains of the essence however \u2013 the playbook for enhancing the customer experience is well-known in the industry, and the airline will want to ensure it remains ahead of rivals in the Gulf and Europe. (776 words)<\/p>\n [i]<\/a> Shereen El Gazzar, \u201cCongested airspace could cost Middle East $16 billion over next decade,\u201d The National<\/em>, 7 March 2016, http:\/\/www.thenational.ae\/business\/aviation\/congested-airspace-could-cost-middle-east-16-billion-over-next-decade<\/a>, accessed 15 November 2016.<\/p>\n [ii]<\/a> Shane McGinley, \u201cSky\u2019s the limit: tackling aviation congestion in the Gulf,\u201d Arabian Business<\/em>, 28 November 2015, http:\/\/www.arabianbusiness.com\/sky-s-limit-tackling-aviation-congestion-in-gulf-613620.html<\/a>, accessed 15 November 2016.<\/p>\n [iii]<\/a> \u201cDubai International Airport: A baggage handling system for the gate to the Arab world,\u201d Siemens<\/em>, http:\/\/w3.siemens.com\/market-specific\/global\/en\/airports\/baggage_cargo\/Documents\/al_dubai.pdf<\/a>, accessed 15 November 2016.<\/p>\n [iv]<\/a> \u201cEmirates 4-star airline rating,\u201d Skytrax<\/em>, http:\/\/www.airlinequality.com\/ratings\/emirates-star-rating\/<\/a>, accessed 15 November 2016.<\/p>\n [v]<\/a> \u201cFuture Travel Experience Onboard 2025 Think Tank,\u201d Future Travel Experience<\/em>, December 2015, http:\/\/apex.aero\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/onboard-2025-thinktank-dec-2015.pdf<\/a>, accessed 15 November 2016.<\/p>\n [vi]<\/a> \u201cOxford-Emirates Data Science Lab will streamline air travel,\u201d University of Oxford<\/em>, http:\/\/www.ox.ac.uk\/news\/2015-10-29-oxford-emirates-data-science-lab-will-streamline-air-travel<\/a>, accessed 15 November 2016.<\/p>\n [vii]<\/a> \u201cFuture Travel Experience Onboard 2025 Think Tank,\u201d Future Travel Experience<\/em>, December 2015, http:\/\/apex.aero\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/onboard-2025-thinktank-dec-2015.pdf<\/a>, accessed 15 November 2016.<\/p>\n [viii]<\/a> \u201cEmirates passengers offered app-based visa application service,\u201d Future Travel Experience<\/em>, November 2016, http:\/\/www.futuretravelexperience.com\/2016\/11\/emirates-passengers-offered-app-based-visa-application-service\/<\/a>, accessed 15 November 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dubai-based Emirates has been and will need to continue bringing together advanced data and analytics capabilities to build a new, high-quality passenger experience for customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2071,"featured_media":15146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-15145","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\n