Kingfisher
Content
Case File
By Gunjan Trivedi
People hate lines. It’s simple. Passengers on Kingfisher Airlines are no different. So, the IT team picked up the pace at check-in. Now all the king’s ladies and all the king’s men, never need to queue up again.
veryone’s perpetually in a rush; we live in a 24x7 world and being in a hurry comes with the territory. How many times have you rushed to the airport after an extended brainstorming session, only to find a long, serpentine queue at your check-in counter? Hoping against hope and good sense you join the line. Every passing 30 seconds increases your frustration exponentially. Precious minutes tick by. You get the idea, right? You’re going to miss your flight. You’ve been there before. Chandrashekhar Nene, vice president of IT at Kingfisher Airlines identified frustration stemming from standing in a line as one of the top reasons airlines get a bad rap. It spills, logically or not, into what passengers think about all the other services an airline provides. People hate queues. If you have queues, they hate you. Period. Airlines know this but there isn’t very much they can do: there simply isn’t enough space for more check-in counters at the airports. “The government doesn’t really plan keeping in mind the number of airline companies that have joined the business. Kingfisher, for example, shares check-in terminals with Indian Airlines particularly at the New Delhi and Mumbai airports. We face a total lack of space for counters at almost all the stations we operate in. And as the number of guests traveling on Kingfisher grew, queues got longer,” he says. So Nene turned to IT to bust the queue problem innovatively. “If we can’t get guests to the check-in counter on time, we thought ‘let’s take the counter to the passengers’,” he says.
Reader ROI:
The importance of choosing technology that is people-friendly
66
n o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7 | REAL CIO WORLD
Vol/3 | ISSuE/01
Vol/3 | ISSuE/01
REAL CIO WORLD | n o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7
67
ImAgINg by uN NIKrIShNAN AV
What to watch out when implementing a PDA solution at Indian airports
Veloci Ty
Termin al
R
Mobile Takes FlighT
esearch identified that about forty percent of the passengers flying with Kingfisher fall in a class that only carry the hand-baggage. “These include busy business travelers who want to quickly get in and out of an airport. They don’t want to wait at conveyor belts for their baggage,” Nene says. Using technology and working with the limited resources given to airliners, he created the ‘Roving Agent.’ The Roving Agent is a Kingfisher staffer carrying a handheld that is connected to the main reservation and check-in system wirelessly using Wi-fi, and a portable
Case File
ticket’s PNR number, a Roving thermal printer, attached to the Agent can help guests choose a seat staff’s belt, that links with the PDA on their plane, print a boarding using Bluetooth. The project cost Rs pass from the printer on the Rover’s 25 lakh. the number of Kingfisher belt and send passengers straight to While checking-in a passenger, security check. a signal from the PDA travels over passengers that travel with “We have figured that on a typical Wi-fi to the airport router that is hand luggage only. day, at a busy airport like Mumbai connected to a Reliance datacenter or New Delhi, we can help save a on a leased line (either 512Kbps or passenger seven or eight minutes. 1Mbps). The datacenter is connected the amount of time the It might not sound like much, but to Sabre’s datacenter in Oklahoma, roving agent saves for a business traveler pressed for US. The signal is processed and time and catching a flight at the last makes the return journey to the passengers on an average. moment, eight minutes can come PDA. The round trip takes all of very handy,” Nene points out. three seconds, says Nene, adding The Roving Agent, which was that Kingfisher Airlines is the first the number of passengers deployed a little over a year ago in Asia to deploy a mobile check-in across 15 airports that started checking-in about 300 for its passengers. Kingfisher sweeps into the travelers everyday across seven Studying the flow of passengers major airports. Today, the solution at different airports showed Nene roving agent’s fast lane is used across 15 airports and that as passengers move from everyday. checks-in about 3,000 passengers the entrance of the airport to the a day. check-in counter and then to the security gate they formed an arc of varying degrees. Depending on how far Kingfisher’s ConneCTiviTy PoCkeTs counter was from the security gate, passengers navigated he Roving Agent piggybacks on the Wi-fi infrastructure longer or shorter arcs. Nene wanted to create a short-cut available at airports. Access-points have been installed with the Roving Agent. at different locations to Wi-fi enable typical check-in areas. Guests flying with Kingfisher carrying only hand Staffers carry PDAs (MC-70 from Symbol Technologies) luggage can be intercepted near the entrance. Using a that run a client application connected to the host system. The PDA is also connected to a portable thermal printer (Cameo-3 from Zebra Technologies) via Bluetooth. “What’s critical in all these is the battery’s life. We don’t want our 40 percent of Kingfisher’s passengers travel only with hand luggage. staff to be leaving their post continuously to charge their batteries,” says Nene. The thermal printer ensures lower power consumption and plenty of spare batteries were bought so that while one set was in use the other was being charged. The battery’s life was also the driving force behind the choice of connecting the printer to the PDA via Bluetooth and not Wi-fi. “Wi-fi consumes more power to run,” says Nene. No one had ever attempted to use Bluetooth-enabled printers for this purpose before, adds Nene. The PDA approach, however, wasn’t the only technology in the running when Kingfisher decided to increase the number of counters – in fact it wasn’t even the recommended one. Sabre Holdings, which provided Kingfisher with the reservation and check-in systems, had also offered a kiosk approach. “Sabre was keen on us taking the Kiosk route,” says Nene. Nene zeroed in on the Roving Agent against the advice of Sabre who feared that technology, which required robust communication infrastructure, wouldn’t find a home in India, where communication infrastructure, especially at airports, is still an area of concern. Sabre was concerned that fluctuations in Wi-fi connectivity (which the Rover ran on) would force staffers to restart the process of checking-in a guest. “I did not agree with them because I felt that Indians are used to being serviced – not self-service. I believed that Roving Agent is going to make the difference, as it is a servicing component,” says Nene. It’s a decision he has had to live with. Ensuring a robust Wi-fi network at various airports was a bumpy ride. Nene surveyed all the airports where Kingfisher operated in, to figure out the best way to ensure good coverage. “None of the airports were built with Wi-fi in mind,” he says. “You’ll always find some nook or corner where Wi-fi doesn’t work. At the Goa airport, for example, the access-points were not functioning properly. Either there were obstructions or somebody was accidentally cutting the wires connecting the Wi-fi access points to the main routers during airport maintenance work,” he recalls.
Case File
40%
8 minutes 3,000
INfogrAPhIcS by VIKAS KAPoor
T
JEt, sEt, GO
MInutEs
PDA CHECK-IN
sAvED
using PdAs linked to their main check-in software, Kingfisher checks in more passengers, faster. This shortens check-in lines at the counter, one of the primary reasons passengers defect to other airliners.
70
n o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7 | REAL CIO WORLD
ealigning and deploying more access-points did a lot to give better coverage. Later, as better coordination between airport and telecom authorities took place ensuring more planned construction activities at airports - Kingfisher was able to build a robust communication network to run the Roving Agent. But that wasn’t the end of Nene’s connectivity problems. Thanks to airport regulations, Kingfisher was only allowed to connect to Sabre’s WAN using the government PTT operators like MTNL and BSNL. “This was a major impediment because neither were we provided desired levels of service nor were we able
Gunjan Trivedi is assistant editor. Send feedback on this feature to [email protected]
Vol/3 | ISSuE/01
Vol/3 | ISSuE/01
REAL CIO WORLD | n o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7
Ph oTo by SrIVATSA ShANdIlyA
R
FlighT over PlighT
to take on a secondary line — Chandrashekhar nene from another service provider,” vP-IT, Kingfisher Airlines says Nene. Their ISDN backup to the main leased line blacked out several times. Fortunately, regulations were later relaxed and Nene built bandwidth redundancy by introducing Reliance at major airports like Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. Kingfisher’s competition has been just as busy, but not as smart. According to Nene, competing airliners have taken the kiosk route. “The competition is literally begging their guests to use the kiosks and using incentives like offering 500 frequent-flier miles per use,” he says. “Our decision to choose the Roving Agent is vindicated. We were saving hundreds of man-hours for our guests and significantly improving their impression of our services.” But the competition is catching up, says Nene: they’re finally going the rover way. The question is: who’s at the head of the queue? CIO
“The competition is literally begging passengers to use the kiosks and incentives like offering 500 frequent-flier miles per use.”
71
By Gunjan Trivedi
People hate lines. It’s simple. Passengers on Kingfisher Airlines are no different. So, the IT team picked up the pace at check-in. Now all the king’s ladies and all the king’s men, never need to queue up again.
veryone’s perpetually in a rush; we live in a 24x7 world and being in a hurry comes with the territory. How many times have you rushed to the airport after an extended brainstorming session, only to find a long, serpentine queue at your check-in counter? Hoping against hope and good sense you join the line. Every passing 30 seconds increases your frustration exponentially. Precious minutes tick by. You get the idea, right? You’re going to miss your flight. You’ve been there before. Chandrashekhar Nene, vice president of IT at Kingfisher Airlines identified frustration stemming from standing in a line as one of the top reasons airlines get a bad rap. It spills, logically or not, into what passengers think about all the other services an airline provides. People hate queues. If you have queues, they hate you. Period. Airlines know this but there isn’t very much they can do: there simply isn’t enough space for more check-in counters at the airports. “The government doesn’t really plan keeping in mind the number of airline companies that have joined the business. Kingfisher, for example, shares check-in terminals with Indian Airlines particularly at the New Delhi and Mumbai airports. We face a total lack of space for counters at almost all the stations we operate in. And as the number of guests traveling on Kingfisher grew, queues got longer,” he says. So Nene turned to IT to bust the queue problem innovatively. “If we can’t get guests to the check-in counter on time, we thought ‘let’s take the counter to the passengers’,” he says.
Reader ROI:
The importance of choosing technology that is people-friendly
66
n o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7 | REAL CIO WORLD
Vol/3 | ISSuE/01
Vol/3 | ISSuE/01
REAL CIO WORLD | n o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7
67
ImAgINg by uN NIKrIShNAN AV
What to watch out when implementing a PDA solution at Indian airports
Veloci Ty
Termin al
R
Mobile Takes FlighT
esearch identified that about forty percent of the passengers flying with Kingfisher fall in a class that only carry the hand-baggage. “These include busy business travelers who want to quickly get in and out of an airport. They don’t want to wait at conveyor belts for their baggage,” Nene says. Using technology and working with the limited resources given to airliners, he created the ‘Roving Agent.’ The Roving Agent is a Kingfisher staffer carrying a handheld that is connected to the main reservation and check-in system wirelessly using Wi-fi, and a portable
Case File
ticket’s PNR number, a Roving thermal printer, attached to the Agent can help guests choose a seat staff’s belt, that links with the PDA on their plane, print a boarding using Bluetooth. The project cost Rs pass from the printer on the Rover’s 25 lakh. the number of Kingfisher belt and send passengers straight to While checking-in a passenger, security check. a signal from the PDA travels over passengers that travel with “We have figured that on a typical Wi-fi to the airport router that is hand luggage only. day, at a busy airport like Mumbai connected to a Reliance datacenter or New Delhi, we can help save a on a leased line (either 512Kbps or passenger seven or eight minutes. 1Mbps). The datacenter is connected the amount of time the It might not sound like much, but to Sabre’s datacenter in Oklahoma, roving agent saves for a business traveler pressed for US. The signal is processed and time and catching a flight at the last makes the return journey to the passengers on an average. moment, eight minutes can come PDA. The round trip takes all of very handy,” Nene points out. three seconds, says Nene, adding The Roving Agent, which was that Kingfisher Airlines is the first the number of passengers deployed a little over a year ago in Asia to deploy a mobile check-in across 15 airports that started checking-in about 300 for its passengers. Kingfisher sweeps into the travelers everyday across seven Studying the flow of passengers major airports. Today, the solution at different airports showed Nene roving agent’s fast lane is used across 15 airports and that as passengers move from everyday. checks-in about 3,000 passengers the entrance of the airport to the a day. check-in counter and then to the security gate they formed an arc of varying degrees. Depending on how far Kingfisher’s ConneCTiviTy PoCkeTs counter was from the security gate, passengers navigated he Roving Agent piggybacks on the Wi-fi infrastructure longer or shorter arcs. Nene wanted to create a short-cut available at airports. Access-points have been installed with the Roving Agent. at different locations to Wi-fi enable typical check-in areas. Guests flying with Kingfisher carrying only hand Staffers carry PDAs (MC-70 from Symbol Technologies) luggage can be intercepted near the entrance. Using a that run a client application connected to the host system. The PDA is also connected to a portable thermal printer (Cameo-3 from Zebra Technologies) via Bluetooth. “What’s critical in all these is the battery’s life. We don’t want our 40 percent of Kingfisher’s passengers travel only with hand luggage. staff to be leaving their post continuously to charge their batteries,” says Nene. The thermal printer ensures lower power consumption and plenty of spare batteries were bought so that while one set was in use the other was being charged. The battery’s life was also the driving force behind the choice of connecting the printer to the PDA via Bluetooth and not Wi-fi. “Wi-fi consumes more power to run,” says Nene. No one had ever attempted to use Bluetooth-enabled printers for this purpose before, adds Nene. The PDA approach, however, wasn’t the only technology in the running when Kingfisher decided to increase the number of counters – in fact it wasn’t even the recommended one. Sabre Holdings, which provided Kingfisher with the reservation and check-in systems, had also offered a kiosk approach. “Sabre was keen on us taking the Kiosk route,” says Nene. Nene zeroed in on the Roving Agent against the advice of Sabre who feared that technology, which required robust communication infrastructure, wouldn’t find a home in India, where communication infrastructure, especially at airports, is still an area of concern. Sabre was concerned that fluctuations in Wi-fi connectivity (which the Rover ran on) would force staffers to restart the process of checking-in a guest. “I did not agree with them because I felt that Indians are used to being serviced – not self-service. I believed that Roving Agent is going to make the difference, as it is a servicing component,” says Nene. It’s a decision he has had to live with. Ensuring a robust Wi-fi network at various airports was a bumpy ride. Nene surveyed all the airports where Kingfisher operated in, to figure out the best way to ensure good coverage. “None of the airports were built with Wi-fi in mind,” he says. “You’ll always find some nook or corner where Wi-fi doesn’t work. At the Goa airport, for example, the access-points were not functioning properly. Either there were obstructions or somebody was accidentally cutting the wires connecting the Wi-fi access points to the main routers during airport maintenance work,” he recalls.
Case File
40%
8 minutes 3,000
INfogrAPhIcS by VIKAS KAPoor
T
JEt, sEt, GO
MInutEs
PDA CHECK-IN
sAvED
using PdAs linked to their main check-in software, Kingfisher checks in more passengers, faster. This shortens check-in lines at the counter, one of the primary reasons passengers defect to other airliners.
70
n o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7 | REAL CIO WORLD
ealigning and deploying more access-points did a lot to give better coverage. Later, as better coordination between airport and telecom authorities took place ensuring more planned construction activities at airports - Kingfisher was able to build a robust communication network to run the Roving Agent. But that wasn’t the end of Nene’s connectivity problems. Thanks to airport regulations, Kingfisher was only allowed to connect to Sabre’s WAN using the government PTT operators like MTNL and BSNL. “This was a major impediment because neither were we provided desired levels of service nor were we able
Gunjan Trivedi is assistant editor. Send feedback on this feature to [email protected]
Vol/3 | ISSuE/01
Vol/3 | ISSuE/01
REAL CIO WORLD | n o v e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 0 7
Ph oTo by SrIVATSA ShANdIlyA
R
FlighT over PlighT
to take on a secondary line — Chandrashekhar nene from another service provider,” vP-IT, Kingfisher Airlines says Nene. Their ISDN backup to the main leased line blacked out several times. Fortunately, regulations were later relaxed and Nene built bandwidth redundancy by introducing Reliance at major airports like Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore. Kingfisher’s competition has been just as busy, but not as smart. According to Nene, competing airliners have taken the kiosk route. “The competition is literally begging their guests to use the kiosks and using incentives like offering 500 frequent-flier miles per use,” he says. “Our decision to choose the Roving Agent is vindicated. We were saving hundreds of man-hours for our guests and significantly improving their impression of our services.” But the competition is catching up, says Nene: they’re finally going the rover way. The question is: who’s at the head of the queue? CIO
“The competition is literally begging passengers to use the kiosks and incentives like offering 500 frequent-flier miles per use.”
71
