A MAGAZINE FOR AIRLINE EXECUTIVES 2009 Issue No. 2

Planning departments follow industry best practices to compete

Global carriers take various steps to remain in the black

Air Malta makes big changes across entire organizations

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A Conversation With … Dave Barger, President And Chief Executive Officer, JetBlue Airways, Page 14.

T a k i n g y o u r a i r l i n e t o n e w h e i g h t s

Happy Jetting

© 2009 Sabre Inc. All rights reserved. wearelistening@sabre.com

CUTTING UP

Can I See Your ID, Please?

Companies, like individuals, have a unique identity that shapes how

they are perceived. And Sabre Airline Solutions® — with its emphasis

on helping airlines better market, sell, serve and operate — focuses

on providing high-performance solutions for the airline industry.

By B. Scott Hunt | Ascend Editor

One of our most important assets is our identity. Our identity impacts not only how we see ourselves but how others

see us. In defining ourselves, our identity helps us discover what is important to us, what drives and motivates us, what concerns us.

The same concept applies to busi-nesses, which also have a corporate identity that drives how they act and how they are perceived. In the air transportation industry, for example, carriers have created a variety of different identities for themselves, whether nurturing a reputation for lush customer care or value-based travel or a hybrid of the two. That self-definition leads them to make certain choices and take specific actions that are con-sistent with their corporate image. And those choices and decisions, in turn, impact how the airline is perceived by customers, which influ-ences the decisions they make about which airline to fly.

In most cases, these personal and busi-ness identities are created over time. While there is always a first impression, that initial reaction can be reinforced, or refuted, through future interaction — which is why many com-panies place such an emphasis on maintaining a consistent experience to ensure the correct image is constantly enhanced.

Although its roots in the air transporta-tion business go back more than 40 years,

Sabre Airline Solutions is less than 10 years old as a distinct identity. In that time, the company has worked to define itself as a passionate advocate for the airline industry, invested in the success of its customers and eager to work closely with them to create a prosperous future.

From the start, Sabre Airline Solutions has sought to help airlines throughout their enterprise. Specifically, the company strives to help airlines excel in four key areas of their business: Creating a compelling product that appeals to their targeted customers,

Reaching those customers where they shop for air travel,

Caring for their customers at every touch point,

Operating efficiently to provide the product the customer expects.

Airlines that excel in these four areas — marketing their product, selling their product, serving their customers and operating efficiently — have a tremendous advantage over their competitors. Through better marketing and selling, an airline can increase its revenue. By operating effi-ciently, it can reduce costs. And by serving its customers, an airline can improve the customer experience to build loyalty and repeat business.

As the world’s leading provider of high-performance solutions for the airline industry, Sabre Airline Solutions offers airlines unique expertise and leading technology. But that is only one aspect of the company’s iden-tity. Unlike other technology providers, Sabre Airline Solutions offers its customers a unique advantage with unmatched flexibility, acces-sibility, choice and experience.

When an airline selects Sabre Airline Solutions as a business partner, it benefits from the flexibility of innovative technology based on service-oriented architecture and solutions that are adaptable and scalable. It gains access to global support, locally based centers of expertise and the largest airline community. Airlines working with Sabre Airline Solutions can choose the solutions they need from the industry’s largest portfolio, including value-added services and the desired level of support. Airlines can also choose whether to install their solutions locally or access them remotely through a secure connection and leave the maintenance of the IT infrastructure to Sabre Airline Solutions. And airlines can also benefit from the company’s deep exper-tise in the air transportation industry as well as the shared experience of the full airline community.

The unmatched flexibility, accessibil-ity, choice and experience represented by

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Offeringexceptionalservice,fromthetimeaticketispurchasedthroughoutanairlinecustomer’sentirejourney,buildsloyaltyandincreaseschancesofrepeatbusiness.

Photo by Jupiter Images

Can I See your ID, Please?

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The Sabre Airline Solutions AdvantageSM is a key element of the company’s identity. It infuses everything it does and drives its future direction.

The advantage manifests itself particu-larly in three main solution areas, including both software and related services and con-sulting expertise, available from Sabre Airline Solutions: Airline Marketing & Planning, Airline Customer Sales & Service, Airline Enterprise Operations.

AirlineMarketing&PlanningThe Airline Marketing & Planning area

helps airlines achieve their profit potential, build their brand and establish the founda-tion for exceptional airline performance. These solutions — including revenue management for customers and cargo, fares management, market data and analysis, planning and sched-uling, dining and cabin services, and passenger revenue accounting — help airlines better market their product.

The marketing and planning area is truly where it all begins for an airline, enabling it to execute its vision. Whether it aspires to be a full-service network carrier or a low-fare lei-sure-focused airline, a carrier can use the mar-keting and planning solutions to establish the foundation to build that identity. Determining the times to serve chosen destinations, the

price and the services offered establishes an airline’s brand and creates the promise that airlines offer to their customers.

As an integrated suite, these solutions help airlines optimize fares, capacity and demand to increase revenue. The marketing tools help airlines create the ideal schedule to attract the desired customer. Using the marketing and planning solutions and services enables airlines to determine the best com-petitive fare structure and provide revenue management capabilities to generate the most income from each seat. The solutions also help minimize costs by improving produc-tivity and reducing waste. The planning phase is also key from an operational perspective. If the plan is too rigid, it will be stressed when the inevitable disruptions occur on the day of operations. Using these solutions to build in the desired level of operational flexibility pro-vides the airline the necessary “wiggle room” to adapt to irregular operations.

AirlineCustomerSales&ServiceThe Airline Customer Sales & Service

area enables airlines to uniquely value every customer using a modern and future-proof technology platform. With these reservations, departure control, ticketing, shopping, distri-bution, inventory, customer notification and customer insight solutions, airlines can bet-ter sell their product and serve customers.

Building on the customer promise created in the marketing area, customer sales and ser-vice is where the airline makes a commitment to customers to deliver them from one point to another with a certain level of service.

And revenue and customer-centric CSS solutions enable airlines to personalize that customer promise. Using CSS solutions enables airlines to take the vast amount of customer information they collect and operationalize it. By valuing each customer uniquely, airline-defined experiences can be tailored to each individual traveler. High-value customers can receive perks unavailable to less-valuable customers, such as having their bag fees waived or receiving lounge access. Operationalizing what airlines know about their customers enables them, if they choose, to offer certain additional ancillary services that are more likely to be perceived as valu-able. It also gives airlines an opportunity to enhance customer service. If an airline mis-placed a customer’s baggage on a previous flight, the CSS environment can provide that information at every touch point, giving the airline the opportunity to atone for the mishap with, say, drink coupons or a similar gesture.

AirlineEnterpriseOperationsAirline Enterprise Operations help airlines

deliver the promise made to customers at the lowest operating cost. The operations solution — providing crew management, flight opera-tions, resource management and maintenance control — enables airlines to optimize the span of operations to seamlessly and efficiently con-trol the enterprise, manage change and provide the desired customer experience, resulting in a more efficient operation.

The core of an airline’s operation is its system operations control center. The complex-ity of an airline requires tightly integrated coor-dination among multiple departments. Bringing these departments together into an SOC is the first step. But integrating the operations systems provides the next level of efficiency. By coordinating systems, changes in one area are quickly reflected in others. When an aircraft is late coming out of maintenance causing a flight delay, impacted areas such as crew and dispatch can see the change in real time and work together to find the optimal solution that takes passengers, aircraft and crew into account. Managing change, from as minor as a crewmember calling in sick to as major as a hub closure due to weather, can be handled more efficiently and cost-effectively with an integrated system.

The scope of operations, however, actu-ally extends beyond just the SOC to include the airport operations and maintenance facilities. By integrating all of these areas into a true enterprise operation solution, airlines have the ability to consider the full impacts of decisions and make the best choices.

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ThroughapartnershipwithSabre Airline Solutions,airlineshaveaccesstotheindustry’slargestportfolioofinnovativetechnologythatcanbeinstalledonsiteorsecurelymaintainedremotely.Inaddition,theycanbenefitfromthecompany’sdeepexpertiseandongoingsupport.

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The solution sets also work together to provide additional capabilities. For example, piec-es of the operations and CSS solution areas can work together to reaccommodate passengers, crew and aircraft when there is a disruption. Or components of the CSS and marketing and planning areas can work together to perform

real-time revenue management based on current conditions rather than relying on historical data.

BeyondSolutionsThe Sabre Airline Solutions Advantage is

also evident in elements that support all three of the solution areas, which utilize an advanced

technology platform, a vast customer communi-ty, software-as-a-service capabilities, and world-class delivery and customer care.

Sabre Airline Solutions has taken several other actions in keeping with its mission of help-ing airlines succeed. The company builds its systems on a new technology platform that incorporates service-oriented architecture and an enterprise service bus to give airlines the ability to more quickly and easily adapt to changing business or technology needs. The technology company has developed the largest airline com-munity in the industry — with more than 200 airlines. These airlines actively participate in the future development of Sabre Airline Solutions products and services and have online and offline forums to exchange ideas and best practices.

Earlier this year, the company introduced its delivery and customer care program to ensure airlines realize: Tangible business value, Full solution adoption, A consistent experience.

The delivery process is designed to be transparent, responsive and predictable with a clearly defined implementation lifecycle. And customer support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week from fully staffed help desks or online through an interactive customer portal.

Sabre Airline Solutions offers its systems through the industry’s largest software as a ser-vice platform, which currently hosts more than 400 applications that are accessed by more than 115 unique customers worldwide. Choosing to access an application through the SaaS environ-ment provides benefits including: Hardware and third-party software procure-ment,

Patches and upgrade management, Application management, Access to proven application functionality, 24/7 help desk support, 24/7/365 hosting, Data backups and offsite storage, Hardened facility, Security monitoring.

The company’s focus, from the solutions it provides to the manner in which it provides them, all contributes to the Sabre Airline Solutions identity. The company seeks to partner with innovative and forward-thinking airlines around the world to provide the capabilities needed to succeed and to give each airline the ability to create — and realize — its unique identity in the air transportation industry. a

B. Scott Hunt is the brand marketing manager for Sabre Airline

Solutions. He can be contacted at scott.hunt@sabre.com.

Placinguniquevaluesoneveryindividualcustomerenablesairlinestoenhanceeachtravel-er’sexperiencebyofferingproductsandservicestailoredtotheirspecificneedsanddesiresateverytouchpoint.

Identity,forbothindividualsandbusinesses,representsoneofthemostsignificantassetsthat,dependingonfirstaswellasfutureimpressions,determineshowtheyareperceived.

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Photo by Jupiter Images

Photo by Jupiter Images