November 19, 2003

Airline Self-Service : BA

A look at British Airlines and its roadmap for self-service in its business.

IT cuts down complexity for British Airways
James Watson [19-11-2003]

It's easy to dismiss British Airways' recent financial results as the latest of a long line of inefficient European airlines giving way to the inevitable success of low-cost carriers such as Easyjet and Ryanair - but you'd be wrong.

Although the airline, like most others, has been fighting for its survival, its IT rejuvenation programme, spearheaded by its 'Customer-enabled BA' initiative, is streamlining the company and optimising its operating processes.

'We very much see IT as a key enabler. It enables us to move the airline forward, better manage our planes and our resources, and pretty much improve all of our functions,' said chief information officer Paul Coby, in an exclusive interview with Computing.

'We've got 30 years of inherited complexity, with an enormous amount of costs tied up in that. What we're doing is building a newer, simpler airline. And we're using the information systems to enable us to do that.'

The challenge for Coby is finding a way to break through the complexity of the business in order to make it easier for customers to interact with the airline, and to take a third of the costs - some �77m - out of the IT operation.

'It's not an IT project, it's an airline simplification project. Our role, and the customer-enabled BA programme's role, is to help us simplify our processes,' he said.

Since it announced its customer-enabled BA programme earlier this year (see Computing, 10 April), much progress has been made.

Coby has established a wide range of goals for the programme, which revolve around customers' interaction with the airline.

BA wants to move to 100 per cent e-ticketing by the end of next year, have 80 per cent of all customer transactions available via self-service, make all executive club transactions self-service, and cut the number of different fares by half.

Executive Club

In July, all the core functionality for BA's Executive Club loyalty programme was moved online so that customers can now redeem their miles, see how close they are to moving up to a higher tier, and book flights as they please on the web.

'We used to have six different clubs around the world, for different geographic regions. We've now put it all together, simplified it and put it online,' said Coby.

'Previously, members had to queue up in call centres to manage their club account. Now, if you want to go to the West Indies with your family, you can go online and redeem your miles to book a flight.'

Self-service kiosks

The company plans to have half its passengers using self-service check-in by March 2005.

A major component is having self-service check-in kiosks available at all major destinations, a process that moved forward last month when BA sealed a deal with IBM to deliver 190 new kiosks.

These will be installed at Heathrow's Terminal 1, as well as major locations across Europe, by next February.

Passengers will be able to check-in, select seats and request upgrades without having to queue at a desk.

'One of the key things we have to do is make your journey through the airport as stress free and simple as possible,' said Coby.

The airline has componentised all of its development, so the same piece of software that manages the check-in process for the website will handle it for the kiosk.

'The user interface and process involved for changing your seat is exactly the same as the one you have online when booking the flight. Everyone talks about how important interfaces are, but in reality many companies neglect this.'

BA.com

Coby has a number of new impending features planned for the BA.com site, such as being able to revise and change bookings, switch seats and choose meals.

'I don't claim that any of the elements are completely unique, but what no else is doing is moving to a situation where this becomes pervasive and where we're driving for real transformational change,' he said.

BA will not only put the functionality online, but will also roll it out across its call centres, through voice automation, and every other channel.

'We're moving forward and filling in the boxes. The Executive Club is there, which was a big piece of re-engineering, kiosks are imminent, and the rest is coming in the next few months,' said Coby.

The results are starting to show.

BA was recently named by the Guardian as the cheapest airline in the UK, a direct result of the work done in fare simplification and cost cutting.

And by cutting IT operational spend over the last two years from �242m to �164m, BA has been able to increase its technology investment from �65m to �75m.

'We're increasing our investment in the future of the airline. Technology is changing our industry and I think that people who fail to keep up with it will miss out in the future.'

With the first real signs of a recovery in the US starting to show - where BA flies nearly half of its flights and generates most of its revenues - the firm's next set of financial results could be a lot more positive.

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Posted by Craig at November 19, 2003 04:24 PM