The customer journey is being redefined in the aviation industry.
August | 2018
The customer journey is being redefined in the aviation industry. Customers will be connected with the rest of the world, even inflight. This is something that business people have always wanted - to stay connected with their business 24X7. Inmarsat’s annual Inflight Connectivity Survey has found that 83% of passengers would choose an airline that offers inflight connectivity. With the number of passengers due to double from 3.8 billion to 7.2 billion by 2035 and huge demand for onboard Wi-Fi rising every year, bringing inflight connectivity to aircrafts is not only a huge opportunity for airlines but a critical business decision.
The findings make three things clear:
This insight brings a huge opportunity for airlines and fleet operators. They can not only provide internet connectivity to their customers, but also use it to provide better and personalized customer experience.
According to Intelsat, two-thirds of airlines are expected to operate connected aircraft by 2019. There will be more secure and economical connectivity between the aircraft and internet in the future and it will be empowered by Edge (fog) computing architecture in the aircraft. This will empower the airlines to leverage the full power of cloud computing which enables access to unlimited content on the internet, and the full power of big data/analytics. Advancement in edge computing and a combination of Internet of Things (IoT), AI and Augmented Reality (AR) will help in delivering personalized content and service to customers onboard.
Currently, inflight services are very primitive and flight crews have been carrying out the services in the same manner for years. This is going to change dramatically.
Hyper-personalized experience along with a partner eco system will help the airline tap into a new source of revenue. Passengers will experience a shift in services around the following activities:
Connected Aircraft - the way ahead
Connectivity within the cabin of an aircraft uses a combination of Wi-Fi, BLE, and wired Ethernet. Aircrafts are connected to the internet using Iridium or SATCOM. With new technological developments, this is going to change. Direct air-to-ground communication (DA2GC) to connect the aircraft with the ground cellular network will be revolutionized with the 5G network. A huge amount of data will be generated by connected fleet, estimated to reach 98 billion gigabytes annually by 2026, and processing such data will require that airlines invest in better and high-throughput satellites. However, with so much data and so many connected devices, the issue of cybersecurity will have to be addressed from multiple stands and will require substantial investments. These investments will secure bigger returns in the future. As per LSE’s projection, airlines could earn as much as $30 billion in revenue per year from their inflight connectivity offering to passengers, by 2035.
Dr. Sanjoy Paul is an innovator and has 88 granted US patents. He is the author of 2 high-tech books and 200+ publications. He is the Vice President and Global Digital Head, Manufacturing BU in Wipro and has a key role in driving profitable growth for clients via business process transformation, leveraging innovative digital technologies such as Industrial IoT (IIOT), Voice conversations, Cloud, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning. Sanjoy has over 25 years of industry experience. Before joining Wipro, Sanjoy worked with Accenture where he led the Digital Go to Market for Chemicals, Natural Resources and Energy industries in North America. Sanjoy holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from IIT Kharagpur, an M.S and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MBA from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania. He is a Fellow of IEEE and IET.
You can reach out to him at paul.sanjoy@wipro.com or connect with him over LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjoypaul
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