The Future of Air Travel

In early 2020, this project brought together 17 partners and nearly 130 students for more than a semester around the critical moment faced by the airline industry during the spring 2020 COVID pandemic.

THE « FIT TO FLY » PROJECT

APRIL 2020 – THE CRISIS HITS

 

In early April, as governments around the world were closing their doors to travellers. the aviation industry experienced its worst crisis in its 100-year history. On May 5, Carsten Spohr, CEO of Lufthansa group, tells his shareholders: "In less than 65 days, we have returned to the levels of 65 years ago in terms of air traffic volume." The main question at that time in the industry is, how long can this crisis possibly last? 3 months, 6 months or even 12 months?

 

MAY 2020 – THE ESAC INITIATIVE

 

In May, the FIT Chair launches the Initiative EDHEC Students Against the Crisis (ESAC) to help companies from all industries to understand the possible impact of the sanitary crisis to their business, systematically explore possible solutions and develop recovery scenarios. 33 students worked with ten companies, spending a total of 1 300 hours of voluntary work. The Air Travel project was built on an existing partnership with the Lufthansa Group. To take a systemic industry perspective the EDHEC FIT Chair invited additional partners to the project, including, Amadeus, Airbus, Celfocus, Emirates, Ferrovial, Frontex, Global Load Control, Heathrow Airport, IATA, Schiphol Airport and Thales.

JUNE 2020 – RADAR WITH DRIVERS OF CHANGE

 

n the first phase drivers of change were identified through a 360-degree scan. The first workshop focussed on developing a short-term radar on the factors that will drive solutions for imminent problems and short-term recovery of the industry. The most important factors include: decontamination & disinfection technology, service digitalisation, alternative transport technologies, willingness to travel, Trust in health & safety measures etc.

 

 

JULY 2020 – SCENARIO WORKSHOP

 

The second industry workshop applied a scenario sprint methodology which built on the co-creation of scenarios. Participants could leverage on the insights on the factors as well as their own insights and intuition. The workshop identified four plausible scenarios.

 

  1. Comeback – The sky’s the limit (Pandemic under control, Global economy rebounds)
  2. The Slow-down – Staying at home (Steady-slow growth, flygskam, climate awareness)
  3. Resurgence – Let’s fly again (private air travel increased, innovation is the key)
  4. Pivot – Air travel for the few (flying is for the rich, pandemic ongoing, limited recovery)

 

 

SEPTEMBER 2020 – 124 MSC MARKETING STUDENTS JOIN THE QUEST

 

In September, the Chair entrusted the 124 students of EDHEC's Master of Science Marketing program, as part of their course on "Foresight and Strategic Design", with a practical case study: to study the challenges and solutions specific to a group of clients to navigate the health crisis.

SEPTEMBER 2020 – PERSONAS

 

Using existing reports and customer interviews the students co-constructed 8 personas, which are extreme customers representing a specific customer segment. For each persona the students collaboratively built a profile, a mood board and a key data sheet.

OCTOBER 2020 – WORKSHOP ON PROMISING CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

 

Working across the partnership of airlines, airports, manufacturers, think tanks and travel services providers the most promising and least promising air travel segments were identified:

 

Most promising (next 24 months)

 

 

  • High frequency leisure traveller
  • Visiting friends & relatives traveller
  • Future traveller
  • Heavy business traveller
  • Business traveller

 

Least promising (next 24 months)

 

  • Medical travellers
  • Pilots & Crew
  • Pensioners
  • Migrant travellers
  • Low frequency leisure traveller

 OCTOBER 2020 – SOLUTIONS

 

Building on the personas and the challenges in current passenger journeys the participating companies prioritized the solutions for the pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight challenges.

 

 

Fig 5 : priorisation of strategic solutions based on value and speed to solution

 

Pre-Flight

 

Testing facilities is the key to gaining public confidence to enable them to align themselves with the destination country’s COVID-19 sanitary crisis protocols. Through easy quick and reliable access to testing facility in the airport premise would help increase the customer satisfaction.
Live airport traffic map is a critical part in managing the flow of passenger traffic inside the airport and through live traffic governance instantaneous real time decisions can be taken by the airport authorities to manage the flow of passenger traffic to abide by COVID-19 rules.

 

In Flight

 

Explaining the rules with respect to the pandemic of the destination country is a critical aspect to gain the trust of the passenger.
Thermal cameras inside flights would also enable airlines to have a secondary layer of safety net to protect the health of the passengers of the passengers. Instantaneous decisions taken in-flight (e.g.: isolation of passenger) and after arrival ( e.g.: proper health arrangements) would enable the confidence of the customers to a greater extent.

 

Post Flight

 

Electronic queuing during disembarkment would help airports to manage crowds and would automatically promote a sense of wellbeing among the passengers.

 

CONCEPTUALISED SOLUTIONS FROM THE STUDENTS

 

The students came out with a plethora of innovative yet feasible solutions by aligning the recommendation and the personas to improve the airline industry.

« TRAVEL & CARE » LOYALTY PROGRAM

 

A loyalty program designed for eager travellers who want to explore the world but do not yet have a stable financial situation. Their task is to complete missions for environmental organizations such as beach cleaning, charity support in exchange for points added to their personal customer account. And after earning enough points, users can use them to plan their next trip and have access to different kinds of offers (special access, discounts etc).

[Music]
Voix off féminine
You. Hello. We are team B9, and this is how we came up with Travel & Care. It all started with some research about future travelers.

Who are they? What do they want? And most importantly, what is their relationship with traveling?

And this is what we got from our interviews:

Nicole
I loved taking the plane, beyond being a convenient transportation method, it is also an exciting activity itself: the food, the comfort, the view and the overall experience onboard is just really fun and enjoyable.

I'm not really worried about COVID-19 since I'm young and healthy. I'm just frustrated not to be able to travel again.

Being locked down for so long has made me reconsider new, closer destinations like Greece or Spain for example.

Voix off féminine
This led us to create our target persona:
Nicole is 24, she lives in France and she's a student. She enjoys trying new things and likes to share it on social media. She is ecoconscious and actively trying to minimize her carbon footprint. She's frustrated by COVID crisis and she cannot wait to be able to travel again. She's not particularly afraid of COVID considering her young age. And she loves to take the plane and enjoys the flight experience.

So to sum it up, Nicole has a lot of free time with a very limited budget, which means there's an opportunity to use this time to create an asset valuable to the consumers, airlines and the planet. And this is how we created our Travel and Care program.

Travel and Care is a loyalty program for young travelers who want to explore the world but do not yet have a stable financial situation. Their task is to complete missions for environmental organizations in exchange for points added to their personal customer account. Users can pick missions available near their location with airline partners, environmental organizations or charities. They can earn points depending on the time and difficulty of the mission. For example, beach or street cleaning, charity support, tree planning, et cetera. Now for the fun part. After earning enough points, users can use them to plan their next trip. Depending on the number of points earned, they have access to more or less premium advantages. For example, under 1000 points they could have an access to the lounge or a more baggage allowance. From 1000 point they could have discounts on booking, and from 5000 points they would have business class offers for examples. Now each user has their own personal dashboard with an overview of their activity, number of missions completed, their travel cash balance or their destination wish list. And anything can be shared on social media.

To register a mission, users have to get the confirmation form from the organization they worked for. Then they use their smartphone to scan the QR code on the form and add it to their account.

And voila.

Now the points are added to their travel cash balance.

Now why is it a financially stable project? Before COVID-19, European students had on average 4.2 travels planned per year. This number dropped down to one as a result of the pandemic. What Travel and Care would do is that it would impact the demand on flights by increasing travel frequency among young students.

The result planes would be flying at higher capacities which would reduce the operation costs caused by empty seats. After a one year financial projection using the main revenues and cost drivers breakeven is attained only six months after initial investments. Gross margin of the project is 1% and is expected to increase in the medium term. In the long run, there will be an impact on the loyalty of these travelers. Given the early work on acquisition and retention strategies, this new generation is highly conscious of their actions impact on the environment. Having the ability to compensate their carbon emissions with their actions will also result in a greater social purpose and improve airlines brand Images.

[Music]

APPLICATION EXTENSION (APP) FOR AIRPORT SERVICES

 

A solution to prevent travellers moving too much in the airport by providing a delivery service added to the airport application service that will allow travellers to order food on the application while waiting for onboarding. Those deliveries will be made by employees or can be automated using small electric vehicles. The airport application would also offer a wide range of entertainment such as music, news, reading, and other content.

[Music]
Female voice-over
Each day, billions of people get through airports to eat, shop and look for entertainment. However, due to COVID-19, our behavior have changed and so did our way of traveling. To avoid as much as possible passengers contact, they need to stay on the waiting areas. But it's not that simple. To do so, we have to tackle two pain points.

First of all, food. As we all know, passengers like to eat before the flight, and this represents a high revenue for airports. However, during COVID-19, it's no longer possible to have all restaurants open. Sitting at a table or even going on a Click and Collect is the best way to create long queues new restaurants. This is not desirable during COVID-19.

That's why we will offer a delivery service. We've all already experienced the empty Terminal D while our favorite fast food was on the Terminal A, isn't it? This is why all airport restaurants will be delivered where you are seated, and this not depending on where the boarding gate is located or which restaurants are nearby. At the first step, those deliveries will be made by persons currently unemployed due to decreases. On the second step, it will be autonomous deliveries using small electric vehicles.

Unfortunately, food won't solve everything. We need to entertain our passengers to make sure they are not moving too much within the airport. On the app, they will have access to wide offer of readings, videos and other content, all adapted to time passengers ads before the boarding time to have relevant content. It will be partnerships Spotify for music, Script for audiobooks, Stitcher for podcasts, and Ted for conferences. Once on this app, passenger will receive a notification when it's time to present himself to the boarding desk.

To avoid crossing too many people, the back of the plane will receive the notification before the front seats. All airports already have their own app, so our solution is to extend it in order to help passengers stay at their place. But it goes beyond offering an extra. This solution will be a real incentive for people to download the app and thereby enter their data. So, are you ready to get on board?

[Music]

GREEN LOUNGE EVOLUTION

 

An eco-responsible lounge service for airport and airline lounges called Green Lounges. The first service provided will be to rethink the energy management in lounges to reduce the consumption of energy. Secondly providing eco-friendly services such as eco-friendly themed lounges decor, sustainably curated food menu, gyms with green sport machines, sustainable cutlery, and furniture. This solution will be supported with technological innovations such as intelligent wi-fi water leak detectors, grey water system, green AC system, Pavegen floor that converts kinetic energy from walking into storable electricity.

[Music]
Female voice-over
Each day, billions of people get through airports to eat, shop and look for entertainment. However, due to COVID-19, our behavior have changed and so did our way of traveling. To avoid as much as possible passengers contact, they need to stay on the waiting areas. But it's not that simple. To do so, we have to tackle two pain points.

First of all, food. As we all know, passengers like to eat before the flight, and this represents a high revenue for airports. However, during COVID-19, it's no longer possible to have all restaurants open. Sitting at a table or even going on a Click and Collect is the best way to create long queues new restaurants. This is not desirable during COVID-19.

That's why we will offer a delivery service. We've all already experienced the empty Terminal D while our favorite fast food was on the Terminal A, isn't it? This is why all airport restaurants will be delivered where you are seated, and this not depending on where the boarding gate is located or which restaurants are nearby. At the first step, those deliveries will be made by persons currently unemployed due to decreases. On the second step, it will be autonomous deliveries using small electric vehicles.

Unfortunately, food won't solve everything. We need to entertain our passengers to make sure they are not moving too much within the airport. On the app, they will have access to wide offer of readings, videos and other content, all adapted to time passengers ads before the boarding time to have relevant content. It will be partnerships Spotify for music, Script for audiobooks, Stitcher for podcasts, and Ted for conferences. Once on this app, passenger will receive a notification when it's time to present himself to the boarding desk.

To avoid crossing too many people, the back of the plane will receive the notification before the front seats. All airports already have their own app, so our solution is to extend it in order to help passengers stay at their place. But it goes beyond offering an extra. This solution will be a real incentive for people to download the app and thereby enter their data. So, are you ready to get on board?

[Music]

A FOCUS ON THE PARTNERS

SUMMARY OF LEARNINGS AND PARTNER BENEFITS

 

  • Ideas and solutions for common problems - specific strategic and practical ideas to move businesses forward
  • Access for Foresight platforms
  • Work with thought leaders in the industry
  • Opportunity to get fresh insights and ideas from talented students

A PARTNER TESTIMONIAL

The team quickly developed credibility and trust with the industry partners given their ability and understanding to identify the key challenges and solve the related problems. Their 4-step approach to scenario planning and the scenarios developed were quite comprehensive. Plus, the factor listing, and signal scanning was meticulous throughout the project. With a scope this wide, the aviation industry has definitely benefited from their valuable inputs and innovative solutions.

Jorg-Stefan FRITZ, Lufthansa

Jorg-Stefan FRITZ

Jorg-Stefan FRITZ

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 

The Foresight, Innovation & Transformation Chair would like to thank its partners for all the co-creations made during this project:

 

  • Stephan COPERT, Head of Projects, and Innovation at IATA
  • Cedric RENARD, General manager at Emirates France
  • Jörg FRITZ, Director of Flight Operations Digital Strategy Group Airlines at Lufthansa
  • Sven TAUBERT, Head of Corporate Foresight & Market Intelligence at Lufthansa
  • Lionel AVEZOU, Senior manager, airline innovation at Amadeus
  • Didier BOULET, Chief Design Officer at Thales
  • Matt MULLAN, Strategic Design & Corporate UX at Thales
  • Catherine ROY, Lead Designer and Design Center Quebec leader at Thales
  • Nuno PERIQUITO, Head of marketing at Celfocus
  • Bruno SILVA SANTOS. Account executive at Celfocus
  • Sholeh BEHZADPOUR, Innovation Technologist at Heathrow
  • Carlos DEL RIO, Innovation manager for Airports at Ferrovial
  • Ismael ORDONEZ, Business Planning Project Director at Ferrovial
  • Roswitha BECKER, Managing Director of Global Load Control
  • Zachary STEGLIN, Senior Manager Strategy, and Innovation at Global Load Control
  • Markus BECKER, Strategic Delivery Executive at Global Load Control
  • Kien HEANG, Co-founder and CCO at Moove Technologies
  • Marieke SMIT, Manager Group Strategy at Schipol

 

The FIT Chair would also like to thank the 124 students of the EDHEC Marketing program and the 14 volunteers of the EDHEC Students Against the Crisis initiative who worked on the project.

Download the summary of the FIT TO FLY project.

Finally, thank you to the media who reported on this initiative: