Insights

How digitalisation revitalised my career - and will drive airline recovery

“Are you crazy? Joining a start-up in the travel space in the middle of the worst global pandemic for over a century?!” That was just one of the concerned comments made to me when I left my previous job role after seven years and joined Omnevo in May 2021, with most of the aviation world at a standstill. in fact, it was Omnevo’s confidence and ambition in launching during the pandemic that told me this was something special. In the aviation industry’s chaos, they saw an opportunity. Exactly one year later, I know I made the right decision. While Omnevo is a relatively new brand to the market, we’re backed by AOE – one of the most experienced players in the market – and we’ve assembled a team of highly experienced people who have worked across airline operations, retail, F&B operations, logistics and technology for many years. This experience, combined with an incredibly skilled technical team, means that we can make impactful changes to an airline’s performance; and that’s exactly how Omnevo saw the opportunity, even while most of the world’s fleets were grounded.

Aviation & Travel

Digitalization: A Sharper Focus on Catering Management and Profitability

In this third blog in a series focused on airline adoption of a revenue digitalization strategy, I want to zoom-in from the broader focus shared in the first two blogs and their emphasis on front-end issues and, instead, focus on how the digital solution is embedded across the airline’s day-to-day operations in F&B/Retail – driving new performance levels in every area it touches, for both LCCs and FSCs.

Aviation & Travel

Airline F&B: The Waste Opportunity

To be honest, I thought at first that it was an April Fool joke - but researchers at UC Berkeley have genuinely managed to convert airline food waste into aircraft fuel! Thankfully, this process doesn’t mean that flight crew must gather the leftovers to power the aircraft – or that the guy in Row 7 can’t have a dessert because the plane’s low on fuel - but it illustrates how there are always ways to find new solutions to old problems.

Aviation

Press Release: Omnevo powers a new performance level for SKY express

WIESBADEN, GERMANY, 27 JANUARY 2022 - Omnevo, leading provider of digital ancillary revenue models, has partnered with Greece-based carrier SKY express to establish a core digital ancillary revenue platform for the airline - enabling SKY express to develop a new standard of experience for its customers and significant new operational gains and competitive advantages for the young airline.

Aviation & Travel

How any LCC can drive ancillary revenue through digitalization

A three-part series of blogs showing how LCCs of any size have a proven, low-cost entry option to seize the digital initiative in driving their ancillary revenue recovery.

Aviation & Travel

Growing beyond the Ticket: why 2022 will see a surge towards the digitalization of ancillary revenue

After 20-months of Zoom sessions it was amazing to be out in the real world again this month, flying the globe and actually meeting industry colleagues in person! Following the World Aviation Festival (WAF) in London I moved on to Future Travel Experience (FTE) in Las Vegas and it was so encouraging to find that these two major industry events, 8,000 km apart, echoed the industry’s increasing buzz around the digitalization of ancillary revenue. Sadly, I’ve now been brought back to earth by the latest twist in the crisis as Omicron looks to inflict yet another challenging phase. However, after two years of disruption the aviation industry knows it has to adapt to each new challenge and strengthen its ability to respond just as long as governments finally realize that locking down borders is a very short-sighted approach (unless you are an island state) and haven’t stopped any of the previous 4 COVID waves in any meaningful way. If the last two years have taught us anything, it is that airlines, like governments, will need to think a lot more globally than locally.

Aviation & Travel

How airlines can regain trust, loyalty and revenue by taking control of the digital customer journey.

December’s World Aviation Festival in London was a great opportunity to bring the industry together and, although attendance was inevitably lower than normal, there was a strong conference program that carried a mood of guarded optimism. Best of all, I was delighted to see just how strongly the focus was on real action to drive ancillary revenue and recovery. Much of 2021 has been spent waiting for a recovery to be established and many airlines have understandably been hesitant (or unable) to commit to new investment or major change in their customer operations. The long hoped-for recovery has been impossible to forecast accurately and many airlines opted to simply ‘hunker down’ and wait until a clearer path can be seen through the storm. That strategy carries deep risks. We now face a new phase of crisis as Omicron sadly develops its global presence but the fact is that the world will continue to turn, people will continue to travel, the crisis will eventually recede, and traffic will return. Airlines need to be preparing right now to create the customer experience that the recovery will demand. Yes, the picture of how the 2022 travel market will look in recovery is still blurred right now - but the key point is that we do already know exactly what the returning customer looks like and what they want. We have a clear understanding of the experience they want - and we have the digital tools to deliver that experience.

Aviation & Travel

Creating new digital ancillary revenue routes for LCCs.

How any LCC can drive ancillary revenue through digitalization - part 1/3: Why digitalization of ancillary revenue is now a viable, low-entry-cost strategy for LCCs of any size in their recovery strategy.

Aviation

Omnevo and Airfree partnership radically expands the inflight revenue opportunity

WIESBADEN, GERMANY, 19 OCTOBER 2021 – Omnevo, leading provider of digital ancillary revenue models and part of the AOE group, announces a partnership with inflight digitalization specialists airfree that takes the omnichannel experience into a crucial new channel by actually reaching the customer in the comfort of their seat - expanding the inflight retail experience and opening up powerful new revenue opportunities for all airlines. Engaging the passenger in the aircraft cabin has long been the most coveted yet under-exploited revenue opportunity in Travel Retail; now Omnevo has partnered with airfree in enabling the Omnevo omnichannel platform to achieve that even in a low-connectivity on-board environment, greatly expanding the airline revenue opportunity. The first rollout of the new joint platform was launched on Singapore Airlines (SIA) in collaboration with KrisShop, SIA’s flagship retailer, in June 2021 and is being expanded across the airline’s Thales-enabled Airbus A350 fleet.

Aviation

Leadership insights on digital ancillary revenue recovery

From major FSCs to small LCCs, digitalization provides the most effective, low-cost path to new levels of operational efficiency and revenue recovery to all airlines. Kian Gould, Chairman of digital revenue innovators Omnevo, explains 5 reasons why. Let’s start on the bottom line: any airline – including everything from flagship FSCs to small regional LCCs – can now cost-effectively digitalize their attack on the recovering market and seize the digital route to recovery. Let me explain why.

Aviation

Press release: Omnevo and Fraport extend long-term partnership by 5 more years

Frankfurt, July 14th, 2021 - Omnevo, leading provider of revenue-increasing digital platform solutions for airports and airlines and part of the AOE Group, and Fraport AG, owner and operator of Germany's largest airport, announced today that Frankfurt Airport goes live with the latest advanced version of Omnevo's award-winning omnichannel e-commerce solution. Additionally, the two companies announced that they have extended their long-term partnership for another five years to further develop the digitalization of the airport's range of products and services for the almost 70 million passengers (before COVID-19) who travel through Frankfurt Airport each year. With go-live, the existing digital solution platform, which Omnevo’s parent company (AOE) had originally developed for Fraport, was migrated to the latest Omnevo product version. Through its original partnership with AOE Fraport utilized the OM³ digital platform (now known as Omnevo) to become the world’s first omnichannel airport focused entirely on omnichannel both before and, especially, during the pandemic. The newly enhanced Omnevo cloud solution enables the operation of a complete airport marketplace solution for all travel retail sales at a fraction of the costs previously required for such a leading ecosystem, creating new revenue opportunities for crisis-hit airports of any size. Thanks to the highly flexible SaaS solution, Fraport has also effectively future-proofed its digital strategy by integrating directly in the Omnevo product roadmap, enabling it to benefit from Omnevo’s strategy of continuous improvements to the solution.