Over the past few years, the growth of aviation industry is simply astounding and its future is very scintillating. IATA estimates that total passenger numbers will double in less than 20 years and reach a staggering 7.3 billion people by the end of 2034. To cope with the rising demand, airlines are offering more flights and also upgrading their aircraft. Not only that, the number of destinations will also continue to grow every year. Analysts said that 2018 will witness a stronger growth in the aviation industry because airlines are adding more routes and are ameliorating their products and services.
Though growth is huge, still there are some challenges in the aviation sector that airlines are facing. Let’s unravel some of the current challenges or issues in the airline industry.
Security in the sky: Safety and security are the greatest challenges that this industry is facing. This is because global terrorism continues to be predominant and aviation sector can be targeted easily. Airports, governments and airlines need to find out new and innovative ways to so that they can enhance their security, without compromising their service and overall comfort of the passengers. The aviation industry needs to employ some sagacious person who can provide them with the best security solutions without hampering the comfort of the passengers.
Technology: Advances in technology is another big challenge in the aviation industry. Like any other sector, the aviation industry is being impacted by the move to digitalization. With the advent of new-fangled technologies like blockchains, to big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence, the aviation industry is trying to accustom itself with these technologies. Big data is a major area in which every airline is working so that they can improve their product offerings and services and can wipe out their contenders by using those data prudently. Big data will help them to get a deeper insight of their customer’s behaviour and in which area they need to do improvement. In order to stay competitive, airlines are embracing big data and are improving their services and offerings. Airlines also need to implement chatbots which will understand the needs of the customers through artificial intelligence and point the customer to the right director. This will also allow the airlines to cut down the costs of their call center and they can assist the customers in a better way.
New technology aircraft: As the technology is penetrated in every sphere of life, new aircraft is being launched in the market. And the number of variants being introduced by the manufacturers has made the situation more complicated. The 737Max family of aircraft, for example, has five variants, which is more than any product grouping in history. The Airbus A320/1 family is less stratified but this may change if Airbus launches a re-engined A321, dubbed the A322. So, the aviation industry is facing a huge challenge to get accustomed to these new products.
Customer satisfaction: Customers are the key to the growth of any business and aviation industry is also trying to appease their customers. But customers are these days very finicky and they are also tech-savvy. Nowadays, everyone is carrying a smartphone with a stable internet connection which will help them to stay connected with the rest of the world. If your customers are not happy or satisfied with your services or offers, then they will certainly give a negative feedback about your airlines and will circulate it on various social media platforms. If this happened, then it will certainly tarnish your brand image and businesses. So, make more personalised interaction with your customers and try to improve your customer service score. Bankruptcy: Bankruptcy is another challenge that airlines often face. Bankruptcy for an airline creates an unfavourable situation for them. Although the airline may continue to operate their services after filing bankruptcy, the fares that are charged to the consumer are not always determined by the airline. The whole operation of the airline needs the approval of the bankruptcy board and even, prices, flight times and destinations will be governed by someone other than the airlines. Thus in case of bankruptcy, customers need to face the most problems and to hold back the trusts of the customers, the airlines need to implement some strong and robust strategies.
These are the challenges that the aviation industry is facing. But they are desperately looking for the fruitful solutions so that they can provide the customers with the best services and can enhance their growth and profit.
The future of the aviation industry
1. The future of the aviation industry is very bright and vivacious. As the airlines are becoming more technologically advanced, some will rebrand themselves. The customers will fly easily to more destinations at a reasonable price.
2. The airports will also rebrand themselves. They will not be considered just as a point of departure or arrival rather they will be jam-packed with restaurants, shopping centers, and other leisure facilities.
3. With the help of big data and artificial intelligence, the airlines will be able to know all the relevant information about their customers suck as likings, disliking, favourite destinations, travel time, etc. And, thus based on all these information they will able to provide them more customized services. In this way, they will able to retain their customers for a long time.
4. Not only, customer services, but with the help of technology, the aviation industry will also implement new safety and precautions so that the passengers can travel safely to their destination.
The aviation industry is a very big sector and hence, there are huge opportunities. In future, more people will earn more money and will be able to fly to more places. So, if aviation industry can find out the fruitful solutions for the present issues, then it will support more in a country’s GDP and growth.
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