The continued increase in passengers is placing an increasing amount of pressure on UK airports and it has never been more difficult for airlines to ensure they are still providing high levels of customer service while handling increasing demand levels.
There is a greater demand for air travel than ever before. Last year UK terminals handled a staggering 78 million passengers between July and September, up from 74 million in 2014.[1] Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, and one of the busiest in the world, handled almost 4 Million passengers in July alone – an increase of more than 200,000 from the year before. There’s a lot to be learned from last summer, particularly when you consider the summer of 2016 looks set to break even more records for UK airports. On May 27th Luton flew a record 50,564 passengers, and over the course of the same month, traffic surged by 17.6pc compared with a year earlier.
The reality is that this continued increase in passengers is placing an increasing amount of pressure on UK airports and it has never been more difficult for airlines to ensure they are still providing high levels of customer service while handling increasing demand levels. This helps to explain why the ongoing discussions about airport expansions are continuing here in the UK. Luton is set to spend £110m to expand its annual passenger capacity from 12m to 18m by 2020 and almost one year ago the Government-appointed Airports Commission recommended that Heathrow be allowed to build a third runway to expand capacity in the South East.
The sheer strain that airlines are under can be seen when looking at the number of flight cancellations incurred during peak times. Figures from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) show London airports had the most delays between July and September last year, with 31% being subject to delay.[2] The numbers also suggest it isn’t just a case of London airports being under strain. Some 27 per cent of all flights were delayed, this was up three per cent from the same period in 2014 and the worst figure since 2010.
There are a vast number of reasons explaining airport delays and cancellations but the combination of high load factors, schedules with very little slack built into them, and schedule disruptions caused because of weather or other events can act as a perfect storm, inconveniencing thousands of passengers and having a long-standing effect on picking the airline (or hub) for their next travel. As you might expect, during peak periods of demand, cracks like this can start to appear at major airports, something that only serves to highlight the strain that airlines themselves are under.
With the busy summer period still in full swing, airlines still face the challenge of ensuring they are able to cope with the huge volume of passengers in their various guises. The busy summer months may translate into increased pressure throughout the value chain, but there is still much to be done to prepare for the coming months, after all, succeeding in such a fast-paced and competitive environment poses a number of challenges.
The travel sector is in need of bold new ways to address operational pain points and stay ahead of the curve. That is precisely why WNS recently unveiled its latest technology suite for the industry, something that has been specifically designed to help travel companies do everything from better handling disruption (re-booking passengers on delayed flights), more efficiently managing queues and even plugging revenue leakage. As an example, the just-launched Disruption Management tool does an end-to-end reprotection of affected passengers, completes their rebooking and re-issue of tickets seamlessly, notifies them, keeps the airline informed of the changes, all in a matter of minutes.
One of the leading airlines in UK decided to partner with WNS when it needed to manage rapid growth while keeping overhead costs down. The airline asked WNS to manage its revenue accounts, which involved complex inter-airline tracking and billing. WNS also provided contact centre and data processing services – including handling emails, calls, and mail about reservations, ticketing, fares, baggage tracing, frequent flyer inquiries and post-flight complaints. Working collaboratively allowed the airlines to perform existing processes faster and implement new ones easily so it could focus on more strategic initiatives. By merging offshore and domestic teams, the airline was able to provide a 24-hour baggage helpline to passengers. The cost savings the partnership achieved were impressive, at 50 per cent, an imperative amount at a time when airlines are being pulled from both a cost and customer service perspective.
Similarly, WNS worked together with one of the world’s leading airlines in its drive to reduce operational costs by 30 per cent annually, increase cash flow by $5.8 million and improve internal financial processes. Releasing a large amount of capital like this could go a long way to grow and improve services to capture a fast growing customer base.
With the summer period still in full swing, it is time for the travel sector to show that they have learnt from last year’s record breaking summer and have thought of new ways to better streamline and improve operations.
Deepak Gupta is the Business Unit Leader for Travel, Shipping & Logistics Services verticals at WNS Global Services. He is also the Capability Practice Leader for Contact Center Operations. Deepak focuses on both onshore and offshore delivery across verticals and geographies. Prior to joining WNS, Deepak has worked with various leading corporates like IBM Daksh and Hutch. He has over two decades of experience in the hospitality and business process outsourcing industries.
