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Introduction
Airlines are frequently characterized as the innovators of tourism and hospitality industry when it comes to new practices of revenue optimization and marketing. Airline digital transformation (DX) has generated enhancements in product delivery, distribution and RM practices, aiming to avoid the costs of intermediaries and increase customer loyalty. Apart from discounts in tickets and promotion actions offered exclusively through airline owned online distribution channels, ancillaries -which are products or services (unbundled or commission based) that generate additional revenues to the core airline product- are available to the consumers via airline websites or mobile applications.
This research paper aims to highlight the benefits from digitalizing air services and new customized products, focusing on the emerging revenue management (RM) practices through the evolution in distribution channels which, among others, fatally leads to cost reduction avoiding intermediaries. A three-dimensional research approach is carried out to evaluate airline’s digital evolution when it comes to air services distribution. Initially, a website content analysis is made to note the current situation, along with the record of the airline’s social media performance. Secondly, efforts of the Aegean airlines over the last 5 years toward DX are evaluated by linking them with two selected DX models, which are the digital transformation maturity (DTM) concept (Solis, 2016) and the technology accepted model (TAM) (Taherdoost, 2018). Finally, the authors assert that the bookings share trend per distribution channel, during 2015 to 2018 may indicate company’s efficiency toward its digital evolution.
The findings of the qualitative and quantitative analyses that followed the data collection have provided useful insights regarding the benefits in airline gains in terms of revenues, costs and branding, when the airline is distributing its products and services via its own online channels and its applications through its innovative digitalization path. At that point, the authors compare the case of Aegean Airlines with the one of a leading European carrier, British Airways, in terms of the consistency among their digital channels. Additionally, this empirical evidence allows suggestions for future improvements.
Literature review
Airline digitalization and use of DX models (DTM and TAM) as evaluation tools
Developments in information communication technologies (ICTs) transformed the operational and strategic practices in the airline industry and led to productivity improvement, emergence of GDSs as powerful intermediaries in the...