Will low cost #airlines be deemed outdated?
Airlines, including the low cost airlines, have always done business the same way, with paper boarding passes, paper scrolls with seating arrangements, and mainly 17kg of paper navigation manuals. However, for some that is too old fashioned, after all this is the 21st century: the digital age. So, why not just let Apple take over.
Some premium airlines are doing just that, they are replacing all that paper with iPads. United Continental is issuing 11,000 iPads to its pilots, which will act as an electronic flight bag, providing aeronautical navigational charts. British Airways is proving iPads to its cabin crew staff members which will provide them with timetables, safety manuals and customer-service updates as well as quickly identify where each passenger is seated, their executive club status and their meal requests.
However, let’s not forget the customers. Alaska Airlines have launched a new app which will allow passengers to access a mobile boarding pass, check in for flights, and track flight status and boarding information. With all the new advancements, premium airlines are taking a leap into the technological era, and this leap comes at a time where consumers are switching to smartphones and demanding easier facilities. The question that arises is will low cost airlines lose customers to premium airlines who seem more “tech savvy.”
Will low cost airlines join the premium airlines in this new innovation among a long list of technological advances? To know more about the strategies of low cost airlin es, visit Low Cost Airlines Congress 2011.
