1. Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main
University of Applied Sciences
Masters of Business Administration in Aviation Management
Mobile Services – Airlines and Customers
Rohit Tomar
José Joaquim Fernandes
March 2013

2. Page i
Table of Contents
1 Introduction.......................................................................................... 1
2 Impact of mobile technology on customer interaction.......................... 3
2.1 Omnipresent Brand....................................................................... 3
2.1.1 Presence................................................................................ 3
2.1.2 Personalisation....................................................................... 3
2.2 First point of contact with customers............................................. 4
2.3 Customized Marketing and Promotions ........................................ 4
2.3.1 Behaviour specific marketing and promotion.......................... 5
2.3.2 Location specific marketing and promotion ............................ 5
2.4 Faster feedback systems for customers ....................................... 6
3 Impact on processes and value chain of an airline.............................. 7
3.1 Operations – Aircraft Operations .................................................. 8
3.2 In-flight services............................................................................ 9
3.3 Operations – Check-in and Boarding.......................................... 10
3.4 Baggage services and loading.................................................... 13
3.5 Flight disruption management services....................................... 14
3.6 Value chain impact ..................................................................... 15
3.7 Futuristic products from airlines .................................................. 15
4 Results .............................................................................................. 16
5 Conclusions....................................................................................... 18
6 References........................................................................................ 19

3. Page ii
Table of Figures
Figure 1 Estimated mobile-cellular subscriptions relative to population...1
Figure 2 Breakdown of channels used to book flights (IATA 2012)..........2
Figure 3 Value Chain for an airline............................................................7
Figure 4 Mobile technologies impact on the value chain activities of an
airline........................................................................................................15

4. Page iii
Abstract
This report analyses the following four questions impacting the global
aviation industry:
How do mobile services change the interaction between airlines
and customers?
What is the impact on processes and value chain?
Which new products and services will develop?
How can mobile services be used as a strategic advantage?
The analysis uses data available from Harvard Business Review and
International Air Transport Association (IATA). The report analyses an
airline’s value chain by critically analyzing the impact of mobile
technologies on those value chain activities of an airline that has a high
degree of airline-passenger interaction. The report also puts forth some
innovative ideas that can transform the products and services which
airlines would produce in the future in order take advantage of mobile
technologies.
The report concludes that although airlines will extensively be targeting
mobile technologies as a resource to reduce costs and improve customer
satisfaction, solely relying on the mobile technology would not give a
sustainable competitive advantage to an airline in the long run and it is
even questionable if even an airline is proactive and achieves a first mover
advantage in the technology application and implementation.
The report moreover concludes that mobile technology will continue to be
a crucial factor in remaining competitive, in the future of commercial
airlines, both in the short run as well as in the long run.

5. Page 1
1 Introduction
Mobile technology is a growing industry and the applications of the
technology are being developed to tap in the huge potential market that
mobile technology has to offer. The Internet Telecommunication Union
(2013) expects that in 2013 the number of subscriptions will approach
population figures, as shown in Figure 11
Figure 1 Estimated mobile-cellular subscriptions relative to population
Airline industry has also taken note of the potential in the mobile
technology and some airlines have already started focusing on mobile
technology for marketing or other customer service activities. The
customer survey results from International Air Transport Association
(IATA) give an overview of the current status of the mobile technology
penetration in the airline ticketing process which can be considered to be
still in its infancy and having a huge potential of growth.
1
Source: International Telecommunications Union (2013)

6. Page 2
Figure 2 Breakdown of channels used to book flights (IATA 2012)
With the increasing number of smart phones capable of handling high
internet speeds we can expect that there will be a constant move from
bookings made via airline website (52% of bookings)2
towards airline
mobile app.
The relative less mobile technology penetration in the airline industry as
compared to other industries and the potential scope of the achievable
mobile technology penetration as the number of mobile subscribers
approaches the population, makes this valuable to understand. In order to
understand the impact of mobile technologies in the aviation industry, we
would:
Analyse the impact of mobile technology on customer interaction
Analyse the Impact on airline-customer processes and value chain of
an Airline
Hypothesize possible products and services for an airline using mobile
technology
Analyse how can an airline use mobile technology to achieve
sustainable competitive advantage
2
Source: IATA (2012) Global Passenger Survey Highlights

7. Page 3
2 Impact of mobile technology on customer interaction
In this section of the report we analyse and asses the possible impact of
mobile technology on customer interaction. Customer interaction here
would encompass all the channels of communication of the brand and the
company with its prospective customers. We divide the description of this
communication into four areas, omnipresent brand, first point of contact,
customised marketing and faster feedback systems.
2.1 Omnipresent Brand
Omnipresent branding has implications on presence and personalisation.
Each of these are described below.
2.1.1 Presence
As a brand, a company would like to be in the field of presence of its
customer. This has a positive impact on the customer loyalty, wherein the
customer is constantly connected with the brand. In the case of airlines,
this is would be all the more important considering the focus of airlines on
customer loyalty. It would also be more economical as compared to
conventional types of brand presence such as television advertisements,
outdoor advertisement boards and printed advertisement as there is
always a probability that a customer is either not paying attention or is
physically present at the time when these advertisements are telecasted,
displayed outdoors or displayed in print. Using mobile technology airline
brands would be able to better individualise and target their customer base
by using mobile advertisements, social networking channels and apps.
Taking advantage of mobile technologies would make the brand
omnipresent for the customer by always being near the customer on his
mobile phone.
2.1.2 Personalisation
Successful brands attempt to connect with their customers on an
emotional level and on a personal level. This enables the brand to retain
its customers and also achieve a differentiation among the competitors.

8. Page 4
This also holds true for airlines, as airlines can connect to their customers
on emotions like national airline, safety, leisure and other emotional- and
personal parameters. Mobile technology and mobile branding will serve as
a platform for an airline to be present on the personal mobile device of the
customer and hence achieve differentiation among its competitors and
improve customer loyalty.
2.2 First point of contact with customers
Mobile technology can provide a value advantage for an airline to become
the first point of contact with the customer complementing the internet.
Mobile apps would be a convenient way to achieve this advantage. It
would be convenient for the customer to use the app to find flight
information, ticket pricing information and also updates on their itinerary
thereby supplementing the use of the internet to seek the information. The
look and feel of the software on the mobile devices would also give an
aesthetic look and a new dimension of communication with the customer.
A mobile application would also give a new customer a first impression of
the services which could be expected from the airline.
2.3 Customized Marketing and Promotions
Customized marketing gives an airline the opportunity to be able to
provide a greater degree of personalised promotional offers that they
believe the customer would be interested in.
For example, an internet search for a country that a potential customer
would like to visit could result in the customer receiving a special
promotional offer from the airline for the same destination, just searched.
We divide customized marketing and promotion into two areas, behaviour
specific pattern and location specific pattern. Each of these are described
below.

9. Page 5
2.3.1 Behaviour specific marketing and promotion
Behaviour specific marketing and promotion would be based on the
customers travel behaviour. It will take into account behaviours such as:
Number of trips flown by a customer in a year
Destinations travelled by a customer
Nature of Travel, e.g. business travel or holiday travel, travelling
alone or with family, Business Class or Economy Class, seasonal
travel or frequent travel
Number of pieces of baggage usually checked-in while travelling
Preferred choice of seat on flights
Preferred choice of food on flights
Based on the information gathered of the customer’s behaviour pattern, an
airline would then be able to better target a specific customer with the right
product at the right time. For example, discount voucher on the destination
travelled the most frequently, free upgrade for frequent travellers, family
vacation travel discount, new destinations etc.
Behaviour specific marketing and promotion would enable the airline to
achieve a higher success rate on marketing campaigns than would
otherwise be the case with generic marketing and promotions by better
targeting individual behaviour.
2.3.2 Location specific marketing and promotion
Location specific marketing and promotion would use the customer’s
specific location for its customized marketing and promotions. Examples of
such marketing and promotions can be:
Airport duty free shops offers based on the location of the
passenger inside the airport
Using locations of friends and relatives from the social media and
promoting available flights and discounts on the routes

10. Page 6
Giving information regarding flights based on location of the
customer from the airport etc.
According to Harvard Business Review (2013) advertisement
effectiveness on mobile devices range from 17% to 47%,
depending on the context in which the advertisement are delivered
in. Location specific marketing and promotion would enable the
airline to achieve a higher success rate on marketing campaigns by
being present at the right place and at the right time.
2.4 Faster feedback systems for customers
Customer Feedback plays a vital role for an organization to assess its
weakness, address these weaknesses and take corrective action. A
customer that decides to abandon an airline because of unsatisfactory
service would be difficult to convince to return to that airline, once he has
chosen to fly with another airline. If, however, the customer is pacified
before he has decided to abandon the airline, and corrective action is
taken by the airline to appease the customer at an earlier stage, there is a
higher probability of the customer not shifting away from the airline. Mobile
Technologies can play a pivotal role in this area. Giving the customer the
ability to providing feedback through a mobile device at an earlier stage
than presently possible, for example during a flight or pre flight processes,
the feedback information can reach the airline well within time for the
airline to react and appease the customer by offering additional ancillary
services to the customer that would increase the airlines chances of
retaining the customer. Incentives for retention could be upgrade to
business class at a reduced fare, additional hotel accommodation,
discount on another flight, additional lounge access, etc.
Faster feedback systems will give an airline the opportunity to retain the
customer for a longer period.

11. Page 7
3 Impact on processes and value chain of an airline
With basis in Porters definition of the value chain (Porter 1985) and with
the application of Porter’s definition of the Generic Value Chain and
diagram in Figure 2.2 (Porter 1985, p37) we use the following value chain
for airlines.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Crew Hiring and Training, Pilot Hiring and Training, Ground Operations
Hiring and Training, Sales Force Hiring and Training, Safety Training,
System Admin Training
Purchasing, Services Contracting, Co-Branding, Leasing Services, Code
Sharing Services
a. Market
Research
b. Flight
Scheduling
c. Aircraft
Scheduling
d. Catering
e. Route Planning
f. Fuel Scheduling
g. Crew
Scheduling
h. Passenger
Service
i. Yield
Management
j. Competitor
Monitoring
a. Ticketing
b. Check In &
Boarding
c. Cargo Loading
d. Aircraft
Operations
e. In-Flight
Service
f. Baggage
Services and
Loading
g. Flight disruption
Management
Services
h. Secondary
Security
Checks
i. Co-ordination
with Airports &
Stations
a. Co-ordination
with Airports
and Stations
b. Baggage
Unloading
and Services
c. Flight
Connection
Services
d. Missing
Baggage
Services
e. Flight Delay
Management
Services
a. Frequent Flyer
Programmes
b. Online
Marketing
c. Promotions
d. GDS
e. Outdoor
Marketing
f. Sponsoring
g. Marketing
Events
a. Customer
Complaints
Management.
b. Customer
Relationship
Management
c. Car –Rental
and Hotel
Reservations
Services
d. Visa
Assistance
Services
Figure 3 Value chain for an airline
INBOUND
LOGISTICS
OPERATIONS OUTBOUND
LOGISTICS
MARKETING
AND SALES
SERVICE

12. Page 8
In the following we will analyse the consequences of mobile services on
the parts of the value chain, where we believe it will have an impact,
specifically related to airline-passenger interaction.
3.1 Operations – Aircraft Operations
In aircraft operations, weight is always of concern, since fuel is the second
largest, if not the largest single expense for most airlines (Belobaba et al.
2009 (Figure 1.1.3; Figure 5.1; Figure 5.5 and Figure 5.15)).
Introducing services and technologies that will reduce aircraft weight and
at the same time be perceived as an improvement in services of
performance should be of interest to most airlines.
Mobile services in the aircraft operations and in-flight services might just
give an opportunity for both.
In cockpit operations printed maps and manuals have traditionally been
kept on board or brought on board by cockpit crews.
Tablets and i-pads are already finding their way into cockpits, as electronic
flight bags, replacing maps and manuals, that are not only heavy, and also
take up valuable cockpit space but are also time and resource consuming
to maintain correctly updated.
Cabin services have traditionally also relied considerably on printed and
last minute updated documentation from Red Caps including final
passenger manifest, special meal- or service requests.
Having mobile devices will not only reduce the requirement for last minute
printed documents to be hand delivered to the cabin crew prior to
pushback, potentially reducing turnaround time and reducing last minute
delays at the gate, in addition to contributing to weight reduction and
adding to airlines reputation of being environment friendly by using less
paper.
The standard glossy in-flight magazine and duty free catalogues, which
are not only relatively heavy (300-500 grams each), and typically carried in

13. Page 9
each seat-pocket, irrespective if the seat is occupied by a passenger or
not, but also attract operating cost in terms of printing and distribution
could be reduced by offering this on a mobile in-flight device.
Assuming at most 500 grams each of these two magazines being removed
from a 526-seat Lufthansa A380, might add up to removing roughly one
metric ton per flight.
Mobile devices could also potentially contain far more service information
about high revenue passengers on board a particular flight, giving the
flight crew an increased opportunity to provide even better customised and
individualised services to select groups of passengers.
3.2 In-flight services
The impact of introducing mobile/wireless services to passengers in-flight,
will not only potentially decrease aircraft weight, but also give the
possibility for additional ancillary services revenue and improved
technological service on board.
Bringing the ever-present internet into an aircraft cabin will from most
passengers be seen as an added advantage. The time spent in the air will
no longer be synonymous permanent in-availability from phones, SMS,
mail and presence on the internet.
Linking social networking with the cabin Wi-Fi might be perceived as
service improvement and could also mean introduction of a new dimension
of cabin interaction, such as in-flight gaming, in-flight dating or simply in-
flight chatting with your social network present on the same flight.
Giving passengers the opportunity to use their own mobile device for
accessing in-flight entertainment through mobile wireless and cabin Wi-Fi,
connected to the internet would mean that the seatback displays and
armrest displays might no longer be required on board an aircraft.
Removing seatback displays from an aircraft is expected to reduce a wide
body aircraft weight by up to one metric ton (Bloomberg Businessweek,
Companies and Industries 2012).

14. Page 10
In relation to ancillary services revenue, the airline could charge a fee for
the rent of a mobile device, while on board, for those passengers not
having their own device.
Furthermore the facilities of in-flight internet and email could be
differentiated, relative to seating class, giving first- and business class
passengers full and unlimited access to internet and email, having a time
limit or transaction limit on the free portion of access given to premium
economy passengers, while giving access to economy class against a fee,
thereby contributing to additional revenue of ancillary services.
3.3 Operations – Check-in and Boarding
On the passenger side of Check-In and boarding, mobile devices are
already in use, allowing passengers to perform their own Check-In and
generating or printing their own boarding cards, thus reducing the cost of
Check-In personnel and reducing the requirement of check-In counters,
while giving passengers and added sense of improved service by allowing
them to select their own seating.
Adding now location specific capabilities to the already existing mobile
services, allows an airline to even further market, target and customise it
additional ancillary services and at the same time increase the airlines
marketing knowledge of the behaviour of its passengers as they proceed
through the airport.
Already upon arrival at the Passenger Terminal Building (PTB) a
passenger could be notified that Check-In/Baggage drop is at a given
location.
This could reduce the time needed to search a Flight Information Display
System (FIDS) for the relevant check-In or Bag-Drop counter information,
reducing the time spent trying to determine where to go next.
Approaching the Check-In counter, an airline would be able to make on
the spot offer of upgrade facilities available to the passenger, potentially
convincing him to purchase an upgraded product at the time of Check-In.

15. Page 11
Approaching security check, an offer of fast track security processing,
against a fee, could be made, again potentially increasing ancillary
services revenue.
Crossing the security check and entering airside of the PTB, passengers
could be made a range of offers, all potentially increasing ancillary
services revenue while giving the passenger a sense of increased
personalised service. One the spot GPS directions to lounge facilities for
eligible passengers could be pushed to the mobile device. For non-eligible
passengers, on the spot offers of lounge access against a fee or against
accrued air-miles could be made.
Airports always have an interest in keeping passengers inside the
shopping section of the PTB for as long as possible.
The increased exposure to services and goods inside the PTB not only
gives an opportunity for potential sale, but also reduces clogging of
passengers around the space-constrained boarding gates.
In anticipation of generating additional sales while the passenger is inside
the PTB, targeted marketing offers could be made, either against payment
or against redemption of accrued miles.
When passing a shop, special offers of interest to that particular
passenger could be made, for example, books, watches, tax-free sales
etc.
Example: “Your wife’s favourite perfume is available with the tax free shop
at a special discount available to you upon presentation of this message”
Linking social networking with location specific PTB sales could mean that
a passenger would know who of his social network were present inside the
PTB at the same time.
Airline lounges, food establishments, bars and cafes could then promote
the opportunity to offer a passenger his social network connections
present inside the PTB to meet at a lounge against a fee or to meet at a

16. Page 12
food establishment, bar or cafe again for a special group offer upon
presentation of a personalised message.
In relation to flight delay management and passenger boarding, linking
these passenger processes to location specific services would give the
gate personnel a better opportunity to keep track of passengers that do
not show up at the gate in time for boarding.
In Copenhagen Airport, for example, passengers transiting through the
airport and causing either boarding delays or baggage offloading, were
often found to be having lost track of time either in the Duty Free Shopping
area or in one of the many pubs available inside the PTB.
Being able to pinpoint the exact location of a particular passenger at the
time of boarding would allow the airline to directly approach the passenger
and advise him of boarding, rather than making endless number of last-
minute boarding calls. This facility could potentially reduce boarding delays
caused by passengers.
As with at the time of Check-In, at time of approaching the boarding gate,
additional targeted customer specific offers could be made to the
passenger, specifically relating to upgrading and in-flight services prior to
the passenger boarding the aircraft, again giving the airline an opportunity
for generating additional ancillary revenue.
On the ground staff side, equipping check-in agents with a mobile CUTE
Terminal (Common Use Terminal Equipment) might even completely
eliminate a passenger’s need for visiting a dedicated landside check-in
counter in a fixed location inside the PTB prior to security check.
Check-in staff roaming with a mobile device might be able to assist with
check-in of passengers, for example passengers with hand baggage, as
they proceed directly from the entry of the PTB towards security. Such
measures could ease the flow of passengers through the landside PTB
while at the same time further reducing the airline’s requirement and cost
for fixed CUTE check-in counters.

17. Page 13
3.4 Baggage services and loading
One of the biggest worries for most frequent travellers is the “Send and
Pray” approach that passengers have had to adapt to their checked
baggage.
Typically, we see out suitcase disappear at the check-in counter or at the
bag drop, and pray that our chosen airline will successfully be able to
deliver our checked baggage at the correct baggage belt at our arrival
destination.
Most of us have surely been very anxious to the extent of feeling a
complete ruin of either a business trip or a vacation, particularly when our
checked baggage appears at the “last bag” on the baggage carousel.
Even worse is, of course, the situation when the baggage does not turn
up.
Airlines would be able to remove much anxiety and concern for travellers,
by being able to push real-time information about each passengers
checked baggage to their mobile device.
Most of us are used to the real-time tracking of our DHL or Fed-Ex
package, and a similar approach would be welcomed by many travellers in
relation to our checked baggage (IATA 2012).
On the operations security side, such real-time tracking might aid check-in
ground staff and ULD- and belly loaders in improving baggage
reconciliation. This might in particular be the case if information of a
passenger’s location sensitive mobile device could safely be related to the
baggage reconciliation process.
Real time tracking might even be a preventive measure to limit misdirected
baggage. A passenger having boarded one aircraft, receiving information
on his mobile device that his checked baggage is in the process of being
loaded on another aircraft, might even in a timely manner be able arrange
for the safe reloading of his checked baggage or arrange for minimal delay
in redirecting his misdirected baggage to his final destination.

18. Page 14
3.5 Flight disruption management services
Flight disruption management services have traditionally been dealt with
by transfer desks only after a passenger reaches his final destination or
intermediary flight stop. The dreaded situation of being the last passenger
disembarking a 747 only to find all co-passengers queuing at the same
transfer counter for rebooking of the missed connection flight out of an
foreign airport, can sure haunt even the most hardened air traveller.
Proactive notification of flight disruptions are unanimously preferred by
passengers (IATA 2012).
Being able to make use of in-flight Wi-Fi during actual flying time to enter
into a dialogue with passengers regarding re-booking, hotel overnight
compensation and airline delays would be able to address and remove
much anxiety of passengers already before they arrive delayed at their
next airport.
Using in-flight Wi-Fi, Airlines would be able to negotiate, agree and
transmit rebooking PNR, revised itineraries, hotel compensation vouchers,
airport meal vouchers, transportation arrangements and other relevant
information and documentation to the passengers. Consulates, embassies
and immigration authorities could be notified to facilitate unanticipated
time-limited entry into the nation of a transit airport which would normally
require an entry visa.
Airlines will, by entering into a dialogue with each and every passenger
during in-flight of a delayed flight, be able to spread out the peak load on
the transfer counters while at the same time providing far more timely
information to passengers, delay-stay hotels, supporting service providers
and consulates, embassies and immigration authorities, reducing the
requirement for un-predictable stand-by capacity in all these parts of the
value chain. Passengers will on their side arrive at their next airport
knowing that all possible measures have been taken by their preferred
airline of choice in accommodating their unfortunate delay.

19. Page 15
3.6 Value chain impact
Based on the benefits that an Airline can achieve from integrating the
mobile technology into various primary and secondary activities we can
summarise the value chain impact as follows
Impact on activities in
the value chain
Cost reduction Customer loyalty
Inbound logistics Significant Not significant
Operations Significant Significant
Outbound logistics Significant Significant
Marketing and sales Significant Significant
Service Not significant Significant
Procurement Significant Not significant
Human ressources Significant Significant
Infrastructure Significant Significant
Figure 4 Mobile technologies impact on the value chain activities of an airline
Integration of mobile technologies will have a significant effect on cost
reduction and customer loyalty across most of the primary- and secondary
activities of the value chain, and can in the longer run enable an airline to
achieve a first mover competitive advantage.
3.7 Futuristic products from airlines
Briefly summarising the futuristic products from airlines, we are likely to
find the internet contributing to the in-flight experience and will probably
see products such as:
In-flight gaming on mobile devices
In-flight chat rooms on mobile devices
Make to order meals availability for passengers on board via mobile
devices
In-flight dating services

20. Page 16
Real-time baggage tracking
4 Results
Mobile services are here to stay. As Porter (Porter, 1985) points out, being
a first mover gives the opportunity to define standards. Being amongst the
airlines defining the standard for in-flight internet would certainly give an
airline an advantage, the question though is, if being a first mover and
failing to successfully define a sustainable standard for in-flight internet in
a highly uncertain technological environment is going to be too risky a
proposition for an airline to undertake on their own.
Airlines are at the moment mesmerised by the prospect of additional
ancillary services revenue, generated from in-flight internet and mobile
services on ground.
An airline engaging in in-flight internet will very carefully have to evaluate
how to offer and market its in-flight internet to different passengers.
Business and First class segments are most likely less user intensive than
economy class, and certainly also much less price sensitive, although
reliability and quality will play an important role.
If in-flight internet is priced too high, few passengers will actually use the
service and little ancillary revenue will have come out of all the
investments.
The lack of success of in-seat telephones installed in most economy class
aircraft a decade or so ago, almost now having completely disappeared
bears witness of a pricing strategy gone wrong.
Price the in-flight internet too low and it will not make significant
contributions to ancillary services revenue to offset the required aircraft
infrastructure investments.
The question could even be whether to price in-flight internet or not,
depending on what other major players in the market are doing.

21. Page 17
If everybody else offers in-flight internet for free and your own airline is the
only airline charging for the service, be sure that your airline will not
generate much of the expected ancillary services revenue from in-flight
internet to maybe even offset the required aircraft infrastructure
investments.
In regard to mobility services in in-flight operations, such as cockpit
operations, cabin crew operations, boarding gate operations and aircraft
maintenance, these would obviously not generate any ancillary services
revenue as they are used internally in the airlines by cockpit crew, cabin
crew and aircraft mechanics. Introduction of these services would lower
operating costs and are likely to be considered as a natural development
away from paper-based systems to even more automated systems,
contributing to internet process improvement and services improvement.
To what extent the development- and maintenance costs will be significant
lower that the reduction of operating costs, will probably to a large extent
depend on economies of scale.
With regard to PTB mobile services on the ground introducing location
specific sensitivity, different services would probably be appealing to
different groups of passengers.
Linking location specific ancillary services with airport specific offers would
be a significant success factor in the applicability of such services.
The challenge here is that an airport might have a preference to offer such
services to its home carrier or a significant carrier at the particular airport,
in which case location specific ancillary services revenue linked to ground
based airport passenger services would be limited to your home base or
outstation stronghold, limiting the usefulness to your passengers.
Another issue is the pushing of promotional information to passengers as
they proceed through the PTB. A balance will have to be sought between
pushing all offers and pushing the “right” offers. Overwhelming a
passenger with a large number of “useless” offers, might cause him to

22. Page 18
“miss out” on the relevant matching offer, not being able to see the forest
for trees.
5 Conclusions
The “gold” at the end of the ancillary services revenue tunnel for mobile
services are not necessarily as big as everyone would believe it to be.
Although an airline will extensively be targeting mobile technologies as a
resource to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction, solely relying
on the mobile technology would not give a sustainable competitive
advantage to an airline in the long run, even if an airline is proactive and
achieves a first-mover advantage.
In the short run, an airline might gain some advantage over other airlines
by achieving a first-mover advantage, but the mobile technologies are too
easy to imitate to last for a long time.
The mobile technologies will, rather than contributing to significant
ancillary services revenue, be a steady basis for which the airlines can
reduce their operating costs. The reduction in operating costs will be as
well on the ground as in the air, by contributing to aircraft weight reduction,
increased passenger self service, improved disruption management
services, reduced traveller anxiety through clarity on baggage services
and loading, and re-focused efforts of ground-staff.
Mobile Technologies will however, in line with the present day
requirements for being able to offer web based sales and check-in, be a
crucial factor in remaining competitive, in the future of commercial
airlines, both in the short run as well as in the long run.
There is no doubt that mobile services are here to stay, and that whether
we like it or not, an airline will, if not for revenue but alone for reputation of
following the new trend, sooner or later have to catch up and join the road
to further unimaginable mobile services that will forever change the
interaction between passengers and airlines.

23. Page 19
6 References
Belobaba et al. (2009).The Global Airline Industry. Chichester: Wiley &
Sons.
Bloomberg Businessweek, Companies and Industries. (2012). IPads Help
Some Airlines Cut Costs By Justin Bachman on June 06, 2012. Available
at http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-06/ipads-help-some-
airlines-cut-costs [Accessed on 21 Mar. 2013]
Harvard Business Review (2013). Vision Statement, How people really
use mobile (p. 30-31). Harvard University Press, January-February 2013.
IATA. (2012). 2012 IATA Global Passenger Survey Highlights.
http://www.iata.org/publications/Documents/2012-iata-global-passenger-
survey-highlights.pdf [Accessed 21 Mar 2013]
International Telecommunications Union (2013). The World in 2013, ICT
Fact and Figures. Geneva, February 2013. Available at
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/facts/material/ICTFactsFigures2013.pdf
[Accessed 25 Mar 2013]
Porter, Michael E (1980). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing
Industries and Competitors (First Free Press Export Edition 2004). New
York: The Free Press.
Porter, Michael E (1985). Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining
Surperior Performance (First Free Press Export Edition 2004). New York:
The Free Press.