"A year ago, we decided to embark on the adventure of hackathons.explains Patrice About, Head of Ground Innovation at Air France-KLM. From then on, we were faced with a choice. We could either launch this event with several companies, with the corollary that the subject would often be fairly consensual, or we could organise a private hackathon, which would give us complete freedom to set the theme.." And Patrice About added that "the one that was chosen was quickly found."
There are many causes of disruption - weather, strikes, plane breakdowns - and they can happen in Paris or anywhere else in the world. All these inconveniences require supporting stranded passengers with the offer of a drink, a meal or even a night in a hotel, with IATA estimating the cost of these inconveniences at between five and six billion euros for the sector as a whole. "With this hackathon, we want to think about technological solutions to ensure that, when a problem occurs, it doesn't end up being so bad for the traveller, or even good."says Patrice About.
more than 600 applications
For this event, the airline received more than 600 applications - "a kind of record for a hackathon at European level"says Patrice About - with the end result being that 130 candidatesof which 30 group employeesThe hackathon was also open to internal participants. Of the 25 ideas submitted, four were selected and two solutions will be incubated and deployed within Air France: AFBotLine and Universal Voucher. Here are some potential advances: with AFBotLine, customers can autonomously choose their assistance preferences in the event of irregularities thanks to a multi-channel chatbot. The daily work of Air France ground staff is thus optimised: quick solutions, less waiting at the counter and personalised responses according to the customer's class of travel or status within the frequent flyer programme. For its part, the Universal Voucher application aims to dematerialise catering vouchers, which could be sent to the customer by SMS and used with partners.
Two other projects caught the eye of the jury, starting with the NotiFlight which aims to simplify the relationship between the customer and the airline by enabling ground staff to contact passengers directly, in real time and in line with their preferences. The other project, Care Francewas presented by Air France employees and consists of a chatbot that instantly helps customers via Facebook Messenger, Skype, the Air France application or the airline's self-service kiosks.
