Aviation Festival 2016: Flightbuddy and 15below Ace Real-Time Pax Communication
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APEX Insight: Ahead of this week’s Aviation Festival in London, APEX Media spoke with Flightbuddy and 15below, two third-party communications platforms, which are helping airlines ace real-time flight disruption communication for better passenger service.
Like it or not, disruptions in air travel are a fairly common occurrence. No matter the cause of a flight disruption, airline passengers can become concerned, confused or angry quickly – and this can hurt an airline’s brand and profits. When things go wrong, passengers want information, reassurance and solutions as quickly as possible – and airline staff need instant updates to better serve guests in a mix-up.
Ahead of this week’s Aviation Festival in London, APEX Media spoke with Flightbuddy and 15below, two third-party communications platforms, which are helping airlines ace real-time flight disruption communication for better passenger service. Both companies will have a presence at the annual conference, which focuses on the technologies and strategies that enable airlines to delight their customers and achieve their revenue growth objectives.
Dublin-based Flightbuddy is an integrated communications platform in the cloud that automatically, semi-automatically or manually issues notifications and alerts to passengers when delays, cancellations or other significant events occur. By integrating with flight management systems, Flightbuddy can relay accurate information to passengers and airline staff by SMS or e-mail and via mobile dashboards, helping to ease uncertainty and allowing staff to react and avoid conflicting information.
“Our platform allows airlines to select and tailor ‘modules’ specific to their needs at the time – for example, flight status notifications or pre-departure communications – and add to these as their needs evolve.” €” Nicholas Key, 15below
Flightbuddy famously helped Ryaniar navigate the air travel chaos caused by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2011. “We were brought in specifically as a response to the meltdown caused by the 2011 event,” says Derek Corcoran, managing director at FlightBuddy. “The platform has evolved to service many parts of the business. It addresses all the airlines EU261 responsibilities and has proven very stable under significant pressure when there are mass delays.”
With 16 years’ experience, 15below is also working hard to make passenger communications easy in tough travel situations. They’ve worked with more than 60 airlines since launching, and recently landed their first ever African client: JamboJet in Kenya. “We understand industry pitfalls and legacy challenges, and can pull on years of best practices and lessons learned to design communications solutions that fit very specific customer needs,” explained Nicholas Key, CEO and cofounder of 15below. “Our platform allows airlines to select and tailor ‘modules’ specific to their needs at the time – for example, flight status notifications or pre-departure communications – and add to these as their needs evolve.”
“Most airlines underestimate the internal cost of ‘build your own.’ Change requests and support can be very difficult, as other projects (within the airline) will often take priority.” €” Derek Corcoran, FlightBuddy
While some larger airlines have opted to develop similar communications solutions in-house, both 15below and Flightbuddy tout the benefits of tapping into tailor-made platforms, dedicated support and reduction in IT overhead costs gained from an experienced third-party partner. “Most airlines underestimate the internal cost of ‘build your own,'” says Corcoran. “Change requests and support can be very difficult, as other projects (within the airline) will often take priority.”