INFLIGHT: LEGACY VS LOW COST – CATHAY PACIFIC Focus on pre-order and home delivery


Although Cathay Pacific has a powerful sales force in its crew, it understands the importance of seat-back technology, pre-order and home delivery services in futureproofing its inflight retail business. Charlotte Turner reports.


O


n 1 February, Cathay Pacific revealed it would yet again play its part in


‘transforming’ oneworld, an alliance it helped to co-found in February 1999 that celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. According to Cathay Pacific CEO


Rupert Hogg, this will involve a great deal more digitisation in 2019. “Cathay Pacific was proud to play


our part in founding oneworld 20 years ago and establishing it as the leading quality alliance. “And we are proud today to be


playing our part again in transforming the alliance, moving forward to deliver more benefits both for our customers and our fellow member airlines as the alliance flies into its third decade and beyond.”


New revenue streams Well aware of the need to remain competitive and to keep up with passenger demands, Cathay Pacific is itself more than half way through its own three-year transformation. “One of the key areas of our


transformation programme is finding new revenue streams,” Aldric Chau, Head of Retail & e-Commerce, Sales & Distribution told TRBusiness Deputy Editor Luke Barras-Hill towards the end of last year. “Certainly ancillary revenue is


growing and we expect it to continue to improve. There are many factors that contribute towards our business performance, but inflight retail is performing well and we will continue to be innovative and improve and differentiate our shopping experience from our competitors.” At press time the airline’s 2018


financial results were not yet available, but in its interim report (six-months ended June 2018) Cathay said the strong performance that it witnessed in its inflight retail and duty free business at the tail end of 2017 continued into 2018. One of the reasons for its success


FEBRUARY 2019


in generating retail revenue is its competent sales force, effectively armed with ‘extensive’ sales training and product knowledge. “We greatly value crew training


and make sure the crew always feel recognised and appreciated – they do an excellent job of looking after and serving our customers and are our de facto sales force,” said Chau. “All crew are provided with


extensive inflight sales training in- house. Additionally, we invite brands to host workshops in order to share the latest product information and brand history to them. “Together, these give our crew


enhanced knowledge and an increased understanding of our products and make them more effective in their inflight sales duties.”


IFES sales support Long-standing concession partner Inflight Sales Group continues to be an instrumental force in developing the airline’s category mix. “The entertainment system on


our Airbus 350 fleet is equipped with an inflight sales function, while customers can now also order products before their flight via a refreshed website, meaning our cabin crew will deliver purchases right to the customer’s seat,” said Chau. “Both of these channels have proved popular among passengers in


“I would like to see us implement a new retail model which could involve many different things. It could see us change the product catalogue, the way we interact with customers and the way we source products.”


Yvette Yu, Retail Product Manager, Sales and Distribution, Cathay Pacific


addition to ordering directly through our crew.” Speaking with TRBusiness Senior


Editor Andrew Pentol in Hong Kong more recently, Yvette Yu, Retail Product Manager, Sales and Distribution, revealed the airline intends to focus more on pre-order and home delivery in order to futureproof the business. “I would like to see us implement a


new retail model which could involve many different things. It could see us change the product catalogue, the way we interact with customers and the way we source products.” She concluded: “Shopping


inflight should be no different to buying on Amazon, for example, or in retail stores. It should be a way of fulfilment.” «


A full-length interview with Yvette Yu will appear in the China’s Century Conference official delegate magazine to be published in March.


TRBUSINESS 23


Above: Crew are provided with extensive inflight sales training in- house.


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