New Technologies Required to Tackle Problems Facing Growing U.S. Air Travel

More flight disruptions likely to occur amid record number of passengers expected this summer

New York, June 12th, 2017—The Memorial Day holiday weekend officially kicked off the U.S. summer air-travel season, which is expected to create anxiety among both passengers and airline employees amid concerns of problems associated with flight disruptions over the next few months.

Heightened concerns over crowded airports as well as flight delays and cancellations are due to predictions of more Americans flying to vacation spots and other destinations this summer. According to industry trade group Airlines for America report released last month, a record 234 million passengers will be boarding flights from June through August, compared with 224.8 million passengers last year and 219.8 million passengers in 2015[1]. This summer’s air travel numbers are attributed to a strong U.S. economy and consumers taking advantage of lower fares.

Recent government data on airline flight disruptions should provide little comfort to passengers hoping their air travel will go without a hitch this summer. According to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation’s first quarter 2017 report, the nation’s major carriers cancelled 1.8 percent of scheduled domestic flights in March, up from 1.5 percent in February and 1.0 percent in March 2016. The report also said the airlines’ on-time arrival rate fell to 79.9 percent in March, compared with 82.6 percent in February and 81.5 percent in March 2016[2].

With expectations of heavy air traffic, it’s highly likely that many of the airlines’ aging IT systems will encounter difficulties handling the air-travel demand this summer. One area in which airlines are vulnerable is existing systems and processes used to reschedule or refund passengers for flight disruptions. This is a major cost for many airlines expending a significant amount of time and effort processing passenger re-accommodation for flight cancellations and delays. But this problem could soon become a thing of the past, as airlines are currently using or considering new technology in order to reduce costs and speed up the time to rebook passengers which, in turn, could increase customer satisfaction.

Bhupender Singh, CEO of Intelenet® Global Services, commented: “With the summer typically being the heaviest demand period for U.S. air travel, it would only stand to reason that expectations of a record number of passengers this season would tax many of the airlines’ customer service centers and aging IT systems. Airline carriers must actively and continually upgrade these systems, in order to avoid flight disruptions and customer discontent that will only grow if steps aren’t taken now to automate these platforms.�??

Bhupender Singh, continues: “During the peak travel period, flight disruption is inevitable but how a travel provider deals with high volume of customer requests will differentiate them from competitors. Customers are more digitally savvy and vocal online about their experiences and it’s up to travel providers to ensure they are providing real-time information and updates on the status of flights. A wider bandwidth is needed to cover the multiple channels that customers have at their disposal to express their experience. It is up to airlines to be at the forefront of all customer enquiries and be able to handle high volume of queries appropriately.