Qantas Introduces the 'Next Frontier' in its Big Data Journey

3rd May 2016

That there is more to its customers than what's going on between the time they board one of Qantas planes and disembark is clear to the airline's CIO Luc Hennekens and the man in charge in one of the richest and most massive customer data programs in Australia is now ready to introduce "the next frontier" in data deployment for Qantas.

This will allow the Australian flag carrier to better understand the full travel value chain of its customers and tailor their experience better.

Hennekens was present yesterday at the CeBIT conference in Sydney and he took the time to explain to the media gathered that Qantas needed to ensure it better understood "how we as a service provider fit into the larger needs and broader activities and lives of our customers".

Qantas CIO commented on one of the airline's early developments, allowing the company to better monitor an individual's travel patterns over a period of time:

"You might have a customer who is a regular business traveller and as a result of that has a set of expectations that don't just apply when they travel for business, but also translate into different expectations when they travel with their family for a vacation. But if you look at someone who only travels once a year, they are going to have different expectations and different needs."

He also spoke a little about the importance of knowing about understanding what's going on in a customer's life before check-in:

"Over time we are looking at far more advanced features, like finding out if a customer is likely to miss their flight and then allowing them to flow forward onto the next available flight before they even get to the airport."

According to Hennekens, Qantas now has "all the big data we want" and will focus on building the culture and skill base that can make such a vision a reality:

"Thanks to the transformation we have gone through over the past two years and our continued investment over the period into customer service, and thanks to the engagement of our people Qantas is probably in the strongest position it has been for years. But we have to be ready to disrupt ourselves rather than waiting to be disrupted by others."