Communication and Integrated Systems

Communication and Integrated Systems Reduce Implementation Time

When inflight service changes need to be quickly communicated and implemented, eGate Solutions is the solution.

Customer

A global airline flying to 140+ destinations in 30+ countries.

Challenge

Numerous inflight service changes needed to be communicated and implemented. The customer needed to convey changes about its:

• Flight schedule
• Meal service
• Inflight equipment
• Supply chain issues
• Equipment and perishable inventory rebalancing in the network

Solution

The workload involved service scheduling, galley planning and menu specifications. Using eGate Solutions' integrated technology systems -- electronic Service Scheduler, Galley Planner, and Menu Specification Manager -- the eGate Solutions Customer Care team created all the changes necessary to maintain accurate communications to the supply chain about the current inflight service specifications. Additionally, technology interfaces with the airline's legacy systems allowed eGate Solutions to communicate new demand expectations to the supply chain by publishing accurate passenger load forecasts and service level demand forecasts, reducing production volumes throughout the supply chain.

The InFlight Exchange (IFx)TM, a communications platform for the entire inflight supply chain, was used to communicate changes in real-time to the all of the airline's service providers and suppliers. Integration with the other eGate Solutions technology systems allows the IFx to provide real-time communication to all affected parties at once.

Results

eGate Solutions and the airline successfully communicated thousands of individual changes regarding inflight services to the airline's inflight supply chain. The changes were created and managed using eGate Solutions technology systems and the integration with the InFlight ExchangeTM provided the supply chain with real-time communication of those changes. Communications were made to the service providers and suppliers who serviced over 140 worldwide stations and encompassed hundreds of flight schedule changes and many more service level, meal and equipment changes. Quickly implementing all of these changes meant that the airline realized the significant savings it desired to respond to the industry's economic environment.