Mobile applications are indeed creating an unrivaled airline experience for customer experiences and a number of airline industries have implemented this application. Major international airlines like Cathay Pacific, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, and other carriers have already invested in mobile capabilities to serve passengers. The fact that people continuously rely on their Smartphones and tablets to connect with different kind of industries is one of the major drives towards the implementation of mobile apps.

Below are some of the benefits of mobile applications to airline industries

  • It provides convenience as customers can check-in from wherever they are at their own convenient time.
  • It addresses a tailored need which customers really appreciate.
  • It disseminates information faster and easier.

When the Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s largest Aviation Group, first released its first mobile application, the app encompassed an array of features that improved customer’s travel experience. The app provided a much-simplified way to initiate end-to-end options for flight booking as well as management. Thanks to the launch, customers who made bookings using the Android app all got a 10% discount. However, the only limitation was that the app was only available for Android mobile devices.

The Ethiopian Airlines Android Mobile Application Included the Following Features;

Booking –The app allowed customers to easily manage their bookings by selecting between one way or round trip, choosing origin and destination airport, flight date, searching fares with money or miles option, selecting fare, providing personal detail, contact detail and selecting preferred meal type, selecting payment options and purchasing flight tickets.

My Trips –This feature enabled customers to view their past and upcoming trip summary, manage their trips, view literary and pricing detail, select their preferred seat, update their travel document information and contact detail, continue to pay or hold on reservations.

Check-in & Boarding –Customers can check-in using the Android mobile app by simply entering booking reference number, ticket number, or frequent flyer number, select the passengers for check-in, select seat for each of the passengers, provide, travel document information, residence address, destination address and emergency contact detail based on the rule of the country where you are flying to. The app then generates and displays a customer’s boarding passes.

Flight Status – with this feature you get to select your destination of choice and brows your flight status. It allows you to search for flights by route or flight numbers and see results for departure and arrival time and airport information.

Today, the Ethiopian Airlines platform has upgraded its mobile app and it’s now available for both iOS and Android devices. The upgraded mobile app is providing customers fast and accurate check-in process through document scanning feature.

Notably, the platform released a press release dated 20th May stating that;

“Customized with a suite of innovative features including document scanning, a mobile wallet for boarding pass, localization and many more, Ethiopian Mobile Application places convenience at customers’ fingertips with enhanced functionality, performance, and responsiveness.’’

According to the release, the app allows customers to unlock the full potential of their mobile devices and enjoy end-to-end travel services. Well, enhanced users experience and interface are not the only upgrades, the app also supports six languages including, French, English, Portuguese, Chinese, Italian and Spanish. Also, Ethiopian passengers can use the App in Amharic, Tigrigna and Oromifa languages.

The multi-language app also comes with over 27 payment options including Master Card American Express, JCB, Diners Club, Ali Pay, Visa, and Union Pay. As per the release;

“Payment is now effortless, as the process of credit card data input is streamlined with scanning. Ethiopian Mobile App significantly reduces travel processes and formalities with minimal steps, data entry and visually appealing experience to other services including geolocation services and low fare search.’’ Ever since its launch in December 2017, the app has been downloaded over 700,000 times.

Other Technologies Reshaping the Airline Industry

Well, asides from mobile solutions, there are other innovative technologies that have really benefited the airline industry by easing passengers travel experience, to mention but a few;

Internet of Things (IoT) –implementing IoT on flights has greatly improved aircraft efficiency by enabling aircraft crews to easily monitor individual passenger health and well being and proactively respond to their needs.

Blockchain Technology –Blockchain technology is famous for quite a number of advantages. The technology is not only able to improve customer experiences, but also operational efficiencies and security systems. Blockchain can efficiently create robust security systems to store and protect customers’ data.

Robotics –Robotics are being used by the aircraft industry to assist with various tasks like customer management, car packing, baggage handling and so on.

Big Data and Analytics _airline industries are analyzing the huge amount of data available to them to create seamless customer experiences to passengers, understand their current preferences and provide them with customized offers.

About Ethiopian Airlines

Ethiopian Airlines is Ethiopia’s flag carrier that is wholly owned by the Ethiopian Government. Being the most competitive and leading aviation group in Africa, the platform is also a high performance and learning organization with continuous improvements, innovation, and knowledge-sharing.