Think Like a Startup: Market-Ready Launch
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APEX Insight: Facebook, Airbnb, Uber. These international companies, once startups, are transforming the way we travel. Airlines have taken note, fostering that entrepreneurial spirit in aviation. In this section of the multipart feature, we look at how El Al’s Cockpit Innovation Hub is a springboard for Tel Aviv’s startups to attain liftoff.
BidFlyer is a software platform that enables airlines to auction unsold seats to bidding travelers. Developed under El Al’s Cockpit Innovation Hub, in Tel Aviv, it caught the attention of HNA Group, the Chinese conglomerate that has been acquiring and investing in big-name travel companies, including gategroup, Swissport, Hilton hotels and Azul Airlines.
El Al was first to bring BidFlyer’s eBay-like shopping experience to airfares (redubbed Bid2Fly), and now HNA Group plans to take the auction approach with Hainan Airlines.
“There was a huge gap between an innovative idea and executing it to a degree that it impacts the industry and passengers,” says Henry Chen Weinstein, CEO of Cockpit. “Now there is a unique global channel for entrepreneurs, as we provide a first-class opportunity to pilot new technologies, and a chance to bring progress to passengers.”
“There was a huge gap between an innovative idea and executing it to a degree that it impacts the industry and passengers.” – Henry Chen Weinstein, Cockpit
While not all startups have aviation experience, Weinstein says, as passengers, they witness places, services and experiences in air travel that could be improved. Cockpit has also helped launch Routier (a finalist in the 2016 APEX Awards), which turns a Wi-Fi connection into a real-time communication channel for a hotel guest or airline passenger – free of any app download.
“For innovation to drive change in our industry, Cockpit is working to build an international air travel ecosystem of progressive aviation and travel corporations,” Weinstein says. Now the innovation hub is hoping to cross-pollinate its ideas with those from JetBlue Technology Ventures in Silicon Valley, in a joint startup accelerator called Navigator.
“Under one roof, travel and aviation entrepreneurs receive funding, a powerful network, intensive mentorship and, most important, an opportunity to take the first steps in the air travel industry,” he says.
“Think Like a Startup” was originally published in the 7.1 February/March issue of APEX Experience magazine.