Airlines

Air India invests $200M to expand digital capabilities

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Leading Indian airline Air India, a Star Alliance member, today revealed significant progress in its efforts to modernize its digital system landscape, with many initiatives now finished and numerous more towards completion. Air India has made major expenditures to swiftly update its digital systems in close collaboration with the world’s top technology corporations with the goal of becoming the most technologically advanced airline in the world. With facilities in Silicon Valley, India’s Kochi, and India’s Gurugram, the airline is also investing in establishing a cutting-edge digital and technology team.

Every Vihaan.AI endeavor, from improving customer experience to revolutionizing revenue management, is essentially fueled by technology. The airline has already committed almost $200 million to the development of new digital systems, digital engineering services, and an industry-leading digital workforce.

The goal is to fundamentally change customer engagement and greatly increase operational efficiencies. In order to maintain its position as an industry leader over the long term, Air India is also looking into new trends, such as using quantum computing to address some of the most difficult optimization problems.

Some of the key areas where Air India has already deployed new technology systems or is in advanced stages of deployment are:

Customer engagement: Modernization of websites and mobile apps, user-friendly customer notification systems, ChatGPT-driven chatbots, modernization of in-flight entertainment systems, customer service portals with real-time tracking of customer support requests, digital marketing, modernization of contact centres, disruption management and self-service accommodations, and customer feedback and analysis.
Employee empowerment: Modern, secure digital workplace tools, employee engagement and self-service portals, mobile devices for pilots, flight attendants, and airport operations staff, learning and development tools, automated crew pairing and rostering, crew management, and crew disruption management, paperless transactions through digitization, and electronic contracts.
Operational improvements: Modernised sales systems, engineering management systems, flight planning and tracking, aircraft movement management, disruption management, turnaround management, fuel management and sustainability, and safety Operational improvement management, and reporting systems are all examples of modern passenger service and departure control systems.
Enterprise systems transformation: Modernization of the fundamental Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, transfer to the cloud, procurement, materials management, and digital infrastructure.

All of the group airlines, including the low-cost carriers, would gain from the modernization of the digital and technological landscape at Air India. Additionally, a focus is being placed on having shared world-class teams and common platforms across the full-service and low-cost segments in order to benefit from economies of scale and learning across all of the group airlines.

Airlines

A 17-yr boy was arrested for making a hoax bomb threat, causing multiple flight diversions and delays.

Mumbai police have detained a 17-year-old boy from Chhattisgarh who allegedly issued bomb threats to multiple international flights via social media. According to the police, the minor made the threats to settle a financial dispute by framing another person.

The incident began on Monday night when a New York-bound Air India flight, originally departing from Mumbai, had to be diverted to New Delhi after receiving a bomb threat. The flight was later rescheduled. That same evening, two other international flights operated by IndiGo, heading to Jeddah and Muscat, also received similar threats, causing delays of several hours.

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The investigation revealed that all three threats originated from posts made by the minor from Chhattisgarh, leading to his detention. He was subsequently handed over to the local Juvenile Justice Board. The Mumbai police found that the boy had used the name and picture of another individual, also from Chhattisgarh, to create a fake social media account and issue the threats. The intention, according to the police, was to frame the other person and settle a score over a financial disagreement.

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The situation escalated on Tuesday, when a total of seven flights, including one bound for the United States, received similar threats through a social media handle. Security agencies initiated counter-terrorist drills at various airports to ensure safety. Further investigation into the minor’s actions and motivations is ongoing.