Air India’s Chief Customer Experience Officer Rajesh Dogra emphasised the importance of data sharing among aviation stakeholders to ensure seamless travel for passengers at the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2023.
He highlighted a recent weather-related delay in Delhi where the airline faced difficulty reaching out to passengers because their contact details were not available. Dogra pointed out that OTAs do not share passenger contact details with airlines, which poses a significant challenge for airlines to reach out to passengers.
During a conference, Dogra found that airlines complained about OTAs not sharing data, while airports accused airlines of not sharing data. He stated that Air India is currently in talks with OTAs and highlighted the scale of collaboration that could be achieved if contact details were shared in advance.
In cases of flight delays, gate changes, or boarding announcements, Dogra said airlines find it difficult to reach passengers, and Air India is exploring different ways to obtain passenger data.
The airline is promoting web check-in to access passenger information, and if that is not feasible, it will attempt to obtain data at the check-in counter of the terminal.
Dogra stressed the importance of data sharing among airports, airlines, OTAs, and other industry stakeholders to achieve the targeted customer experience.
He mentioned that Air India desires an application to assist passengers in navigating the airport and receiving notifications.
After the Tata Group took control of Air India in January 2022, the airline has undertaken various measures to improve on-time performance, refurbish aircraft interiors, and bring grounded aircraft back into service.
Air India is working closely with airports to find ways to exchange data through application programming interfaces and other processes to achieve a seamless end-to-end passenger journey.
