An interview with Paul Behan, Programme Manager, Fast Travel programmes, IATA

Following the success of electronic ticketing, the IATA Board of Governors has asked IATA to look at other elements of the passenger journey, in order to offer a self service option for passengers to choose. IATA went out to passengers through their Corporate Air Travel Survey (CATS) and independently surveyed 11,000 passengers. We spoke with Paul to find out more about how IATA’s Fast Travel programme will revolutionise the way in which we pass through an airport.

Q: How would you describe the Fast Travel programme?

A: The Fast Travel initiative responds to consumer demand for greater convenience with a set of projects designed to offer a range of self-service options, to enable the passenger to manage all appropriate aspects of the departure and arrival processes. Of course we are continuing to work on the kiosk programme, and 2D barcodes which are enabling home printed boarding passes, home check-in and now on mobile devices. In essence, it’s really taking all of that momentum and moving it through the rest of the process, where we believe we can add value and enhance the journey for the passenger.

Q: What are your goals and objectives?

A: This year we have launched a number of project pilots, working with our airline members and airport and ground handling colleagues, to really see which self-service elements will add value, whether we have a business case that makes sense and how they improve the passenger experience. It’s really the feasibility stage this year, and at the end of this year we will go to our board with a series of targets to say “lets actually make these all a reality.” If the board approves, next year we will really start delivering projects properly.

Q: Who will benefit from this project?

A: All stakeholders in the industry will benefit. First and foremost the passengers, to make sure they have a better experience and can control more aspects of the journey themselves, the airlines to make sure that they add more value into the product that they market to the passenger, and also increasingly to make sure that airports can raise their level of efficiency to help reduce the overall cost to our members and at the same time provide a better level of service for the passenger. So really, if you look at the triangle, all parties will benefit and gain from these programmes.

Q: Will IATA be providing any additional services?

A: In terms of the programme we set our series of projects along the passenger journey. From ticket purchase, which we have already done, through to check in, moving onto managing baggage, to problem resolution when we have cancellations and delays, all the way through to if we have a problem with lost baggage and how we can help the passenger cover that in a self service way. It’s really looking at the end to end journey for the passenger.

Q: How will you evaluate the projects success?

A: From the surveys that we have done and others, passengers are saying that they would like a greater degree of control over the process themselves and that they want to do that through a self service mechanism. In terms of measuring our success, we will determine that the benefits we forecast are realised by all stakeholders, that capability of these projects increases throughout the industry and lastly, that we develop appropriate standards to ensure consistency of solution development by the vendor community. For passengers, we will continue to take direct customer feedback to ensure we are delivering to the industry needs.

Q: So customer feedback is very important to you?

A: We have our Corporate Air Travel Survey (CATS) which is around 11,000 passengers and we do that every year, so we are taking feedback not just from the airports and airlines, but directly from the travelling public as well.

Q: How will the project evolve over time?

A: The sharp end will be whether passengers like what the projects are intended to do for them, and we have the mechanisms in place where if we are going down a particular direction and passengers say “well actually we want it done this way”, we are reactive enough to be able to change what we do in terms of delivery. I think that the strategy that we put in place will be what the passenger wants. I believe we are pretty good in terms of our strategic direction, but in terms of delivery we will obviously reflect what the market wants at that particular time.

Q: Have there been any recent trials relating to the programme?

A: This is a pilot programme that we are running at the moment and we have a number of pilots running on each of the project areas. We are taking feedback from the airports and airlines that we are working with, and we are actually feeding that into the overall project business cases that will be presented to the board in December of this year. It’s quite an interactive piece of work that we are doing at the moment.

Q: What is IATA’s role in the programme in comparison to the airports and airlines?

A: Our primary role is to set direction with our members and lead that strategy through to implementation. What we do on a daily basis is to make sure we have the standards in place to allow vendors to create solutions for airlines and airports to adopt. We want to make sure that we don’t end up with fifty different ways of doing the same thing. We want to try and implement standards where they make sense and add value to the airlines product to the passengers, so really that’s our key added value; developing strategy, setting direction and driving implementation, supported by appropriate standards.

Q: What risks will you plan to manage?

A: The biggest single risk is that passengers will say that this is not what they want. We are making sure that we manage that with direct contact through our passenger surveys. Another risk would be that it doesn’t add value to the airlines business, and that is why we’re working through the pilots to make sure that we capture those. In terms of risks to airports not investing in solutions, again they are part of the pilot programmes so we’re taking direct feedback and we’re working through organisations like ACI to ensure that we capture all of the airport community. We think we have the stakeholder engagement roughly at the right level to make sure we have input from all those who supply us.