Fires on all fronts as airlines fight to recover

The airline industry has lurched from the crisis that was the pandemic to the crisis that is the return to travel.

One question on many peoples' lips - travelers and industry professionals alike - is why airlines didn't use the downtime to learn and improve?

The short answer is that it’s just not that simple, there are many pieces to the puzzle, many stakeholders in the chain and resources are scant.

In recent weeks, airlines across Europe including British Airways, easyJet, KLM and Lufthansa have been forced to cancel thousands of flights.

The challenges aren’t unique to Europe with a number of U.S-based airlines facing similar challenges currently.

Carriers and airports have struggled to recruit staff fast enough to cope with the pent-up demand, and therefore buckled under the sheer weight of passenger volumes.

All of this has added to the already existing need to automate processes as much as possible.

So, how does the industry learn from the pandemic?

Is there low-hanging fruit to be had when it comes to improving the passenger experience and what can airlines learn from previous large-scale technology developments?

Tamur Goudarzi Pour, CCO of Swiss Air Lines and senior vice president, channel management, for Lufthansa Group, addresses many of these issues during an Executive Interview at Phocuswright Europe in Amsterdam last week.

He also touches on attracting the best talent to the industry and whether environmental initiatives from airlines will ever be enough.

Watch the full session, moderated by PhocusWire senior reporter Linda Fox, below: