Vinod Bhat
CIO
Vistara Airlines

Touchless travel is quietly gaining precedence and will be accepted as a norm in the coming times. Vistara is the first airline to have introduced touchless/paperless boarding at a few Indian airports two years ago. Vinod Bhat brings with him close to three decades of experience in driving business transformations leveraging digital technologies and others. He has worked in multiple geographies and spends time building next-level leadership.

 
“Aviation industry has been under a lot of pressure and got significantly impacted during the pandemic. The demand and supply patterns have been dynamic and fluid, which has forced airlines to be cost nimble, agile, resilient, and adaptable.
 

Airlines started looking at prioritizing CAPEX and optimizing OPEX spending.” Vinod said further adding that the customers’ expectation of a consistent experience across channels while maintaining safety and hygiene became the new norm. Digital technologies have played a significant role in this transformation from B2E and B2C perspective. 
 

Touchless Travel
“Industry 4.0 Technologies like Automation, Artificial Intelligence, ML, Cloud, IoT, Big Data and Analytics, have also been playing a key role in helping airlines optimize operations, improve revenue, better plan, and utilize resources etc.
 

This has been very helpful given the financial stress that the pandemic had put on the industry. Another notable transformation, more from a customer behaviour perspective, is the growing preference for non-stop, direct flights to avoid the risk of contracting the virus while in transit. We have witnessed this trend emerge and expect it to get stronger in the future as safety and hygiene continue to be amongst the top considerations for customers while travelling,” Vinod added.
 

It has been said that the pandemic has stimulated years of innovation in a matter of months. Before the pandemic, innovation to introduce touchless or low-contact travel was being done to create a more enjoyable, hassle-free experience for the customer.
 

Vistara introduced several tech-enabled processes to minimize physical contact between customers and staff. Casting of kiosk screens on passenger mobile, scan & fly, self-tagging, self-baggage drop, self-boarding, e-gates, biometrics/face recognition, e-boarding passes, and bag tags are all touchless solutions that have been helpful in the direction of making air travel safer and getting passengers to repose their trust in flying.
 

This has proven to be a game-changer for Vistara. Today, the entire aviation ecosystem is investing in several technologies, including touchless, to make the customer journey safer and more convenient.
 

Speaking on the changing trends in the airports, he says, “At airports, the contactless journey will be supported by biometric innovation, data exchange and digital cooperation between airlines and airports. Facial recognition at check-in and baggage drop-points, touchless biometrics to verify passenger identity, QR codes and smart cameras for identification, automated e-gates, robotics, and AI are some of the technologies that have already been deployed around the world to ensure minimum contact.”
 

Also, according to him, IoT technologies will play a significant role in making airports smart. There will be automated, sensor-based systems, which will collect customer information and will accordingly guide customers at various checkpoints like security, passport verification, baggage submission etc. It will help in avoiding long queues and decongest the counters.
 

Challenges in implementing touchless travel
Customer expectations have significantly changed when it comes to travel and contactless solutions are now a crucial factor. However, the adoption and streamlining of these operations can pose a challenge. Also, the right infrastructure for running, maintaining and constantly upgrading these technologies is also important. I feel that the industry must come together to not just implement technology enhancements across different touchpoints, but also make sure the process is sustained well and regularly reviewed to maintain efficiency.
 

Technologies like biometric, facial recognition, QR codes and most of the other technologies have already been in use in many parts of the world, while others are in the process of deploying them.
 

Vinod firmly believes that technologies like biometric facial recognition, QR Codes, smart cameras and other robotics backed by AI and big data analytics will, eventually, be able to assist customers throughout their journey without having to physically interact with any person or surface. “Right from the moment a customer enters the airport getting his or her ID verified, to check-in, security checks, boarding and so on, all these will be powered by technologies that can make data-based decisions to make it increasingly more convenient, and more importantly, safer. There will be greater use of thermal cameras powered by high bandwidth like 5G, supported by edge computing,” he said.
 

Future of Aviation
Vinod, speaking on the vaccine passports (or travel/health passes), predicts they are expected to become key to the future of global travel, given the vital role vaccination is playing in the fight against COVID-19 across the globe. These are also the right way forward to ensure a safe and sustainable rebound for the aviation industry.
 

In the near future, a person without digital health passport/vaccination certificates may be able to travel but will have to go through COVID-19 or other tests at the airport, making his/her travel experience quite frustrating. “Sooner or later, digital health passports will be the new and only way to travel. The Future of aviation will be based on Biometric travel seamlessly supported by digital identity and digital health passport,” he concluded.