Digital-first organizations at the heart of aviation’s recovery
The aviation sector has suffered greatly during the pandemic and its challenges are far from over. Despite the impressive progress...
No matter the industry, there is no doubt that technology is the future. Digitalization has become essential in every part of our lives, including travel. Passengers are demanding convenience, affordability, and seamless travel experiences—and with the advancement of technology, travellers now have more control over their experiences.
In the latest ACI ASQ Global Travel Survey, digitalization is mentioned as one of the key asks from consumers in their travel journey. Being in the business of travel since 1998, we understand the pain-points of travelling and the need to incorporate technology into our service whilst providing a seamless, end-to-end airport journey.
We see the importance of connecting the entire traveller’s journey, from home to departure and transit, up until the moment they arrive at their destination. Passenger services at the airport can be highly fragmented and there is an opportunity for us to ensure a more seamless journey.
For instance: A solo business traveller who is on a business trip has an early morning meeting might book a limo service from service provider A to get him from home to the airport and then a meet & assist from service provider B to ensure he makes his way to his departure gate on time. However, if there is a disruption to his flight, he must inform both service providers of the change to his schedule.
Through our ALLWAYS Concierge service, we have come up with a technology solution called the Travel Experience Eco-System (TECO), which enables us to follow through the travellers’ airport journey via three components: digital commerce, back-office management, and service delivery. Users can browse for various airport passenger services including limo service, meet & assist, and buggy service on our ALLWAYS Concierge website, make their bookings and curate different airport experiences to cater to their own needs.
TECO is able to house all airport passenger services and integrate them into one single platform to provide a seamless vendor and consumer experience. This is made possible through an omni-channel booking engine that enables worldwide sales and distribution (digital commerce). The solution also comes with a customer engagement center with customer profiling and personalization capabilities (back-office management), as well as a service delivery platform for dispatch and real-time incident management (service delivery).
For example, when a traveller books a limo and meet & assist service, TECO enables us to collect, process and track this data and gives us real-time information so that we will be able to manage our manpower and deploy these services to our customer seamlessly.
On top of that, TECO also helps create opportunities for airports to increase their non-aeronautical revenue through cross-selling or bundled services on the platform while at the same time reducing their operational costs through more efficient processes. The platform provides passenger insights to airports which allow for better-personalized services and drive targeted marketing promotion to encourage footfall in retail shops and create more bundled sales opportunities for airport service providers. In the future, we will be extending TECO to cover other service offerings to include lounge access and booking of hotel rooms.
Digitalization and adapting to new technologies are the way forward for Plaza Premium Group. The future of digitalization will help to improve the customer experience and allows us to enhance our internal processes whilst creating the opportunity for us to generate additional revenue. With digitalization, we can continue to improve and meet the evolving needs of the future traveller together.
Olivia Chang leads PPG’s global digital and technology team, and spearheads the company’s global digital and technology strategy.
Olivia has over 30 years of experience in various regional/global CIO roles in well-renowned multi-national corporations including Coca-Cola, Bacardi, Kraft Foods and Philip Morris based in China and Geneva. She’s a thought leader and practitioner in driving business digital transformation and sustainable growth combining cutting edge technology with insightful business applications and leveraging the innovation ecosystem. Before joining PPG in May 2021, she spent several years building her entrepreneurial digital startup. Currently, she also serves as the pro-bono Startup Mentor for Hong Kong Cyberport.
