Technology caution moderates speed of transformation


starting to come to the fore. We see increasing use across the industry and collaborative projects. “Biometrics is not new. We see it


already at immigration facilities and check-in. But now we’re starting to see integrated processes with biometric tokens passed from one part of the process to the next and between airlines and domestic agencies. There is an increase in collaboration among airlines, airports and government agencies. At an industry level there is so much potential for process improvement and efficiencies, and a single stakeholder trying to do it cannot realise the potential opportunities. “At the operational level, everyone has


woken up to the challenge of capacity. There is a need for optimisation and efficiency, to unlock capacity and to make the capacity there is more resilient.” For airports, Bowman identifies a


THE UK and Spain lead Europe’s main markets on rates of


accommodation bookings online, which are way ahead of overall


retail rates online (Figure 55). The rate of higher-value purchases online in the UK is the highest of Europe’s major markets and far above the EU average (Figure 56)


ACCOMMODATION BOOKINGS, 2018


% of turnover, enterprises with 10-plus staff FIGURE 55: E-COMMERCE


%


10 20 30 40 50


0


Highest EU rate: Norway (50%)


45% 44% 32% 22% 22% 11% 11%


Accommodation bookings


%


10 15 20 25 30


7% 7%


0 5


3% 14% 5% 6% Retail sales* *All sales excluding motor trade Source: Eurostat 2018


FIGURE 56: UK/EU ADULTS PURCHASING HIGHER-VALUE PRODUCTS ONLINE, BY AGE


Purchases in 3-month period, all adults 26% 20% 15% 17% 15% 13% 6% 5% 12% 5% 3% 1% 2% 6% 4% 5% 11% 9% 3% 2% €1,000-plus 1%


16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65-74 €500 to €1,000


36 Travel Weekly Insight Report 2019-20 Source: Eurostat


EU UK


12% 29%


Highest EU rate: Ireland (28%)


EU France Germany Italy Spain UK


Norway Ireland


second priority, saying: “The passenger experience is high on the agenda – a long-term driver of investment and one of the big drivers of biometrics and for less [human] contact. There is a correlation between the customer experience and retail spending, between happy customers and their willingness to spend.”


AUTOMATION CAUTION


Developments in AI and robotics hold great promise, but Bowman sees a major check on how far developments may go. He describes AI as “the combination of analytics and machine learning to enable data to give insight” and said: “We’ve seen a pick-up in the area of ‘digital twins’, taking attributes of the physical world and using data science and analytics to create a digital twin to derive insights. “For example, one US airport is building a digital twin, or copy, of all aircraft movements and decision points – flow on taxiways, runways, stands, queueing – to analyse the time aircraft are on the ground and how it could be reduced. We could create a digital copy of airspace to analyse how better to manage it.” At the same time, Bowman said:


“We’ve not seen a rise of AI in operational processes. The industry is still feeling its way. The emphasis to date has been on how to utilise data and analytics to make better decisions, with humans still in the loop. “I don’t see a major tipping point in automation of decision-making processes in operations for some time. Decision- making augmentation is a priority, but there is nervousness about automating too much – a nervousness that we may become too dependent on machines.” For example, he said: “Full automation of air traffic control is just not on the agenda. The regulatory regime and safety are geared around people having safety


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52