Singapore Airlines SVP Discusses SIA’s Distribution And Digitalisation Strategies, Including NDC

Transcript

Campbell Wilson:We see NDC or API distribution generally as a key part of our future distribution strategy. Obviously being a full-service carrier with a lot of product attributes beyond just the seat, it's very important for us to be able to convey all of those different attributes, to convey the value of what the Singapore Airlines experience is. And so the traditional GDS distribution just doesn't allow that. So NDC is a key part of our strategy. We spent a lot of time over the last year building the capability, building proof of concepts with aggregators, with GDS, with TMCs, with OTAs, and just recently launched our developer portal with 30 APIs including NDC so that parties can come to us, test in the sandbox, and then quickly deploy APIs out. Moving forward, it becomes an increasing part of our distribution strategy involving collaboration with the GDSs to change the economic construct and also with the travel agencies for them to understand the benefits that NDC and API distribution can accord them in tailoring a product to the customer. And beyond the travel agency community is other ecosystems— bank retail platforms, Alitrip, WeChat, the search and social media companies. You know, really future distribution is so much more fragmented than it's been in the past, and it's absolutely critical that we are part of that. So I think for the global companies, the big TMCs, the big retail agents like Flight Centre and CTM, I think they get it because many airlines are starting to talk about NDC and API. It's the smaller, more regionally focused agents that are still not sure and perhaps haven't realized how much the industry has evolved in the last couple of years. So a lot of it is education, and particularly in the Asian region, there's a lot of education still required. Well, API is just the current technology of e-commerce, whether it's Amazon or Netflix. It has come to the aviation industry in the guise of NDC, which is an IATA-endorsed standard. So it's not up to an airline to promulgate it. It is airlines collectively through IATA. And so, yes, there is a bit more of an education process to be done. We are encouraging and working with IATA to do that. It has taken hold more in other parts of the world than in Asia so far, but it will come to Asia. There's 4 Asian carriers, if you include Qantas, Cathay, SQ, and China Southern, on the IATA leaderboard. We hope more will join, but we really need to get that message across in Asia. We view ancillaries as part of the overall customer product bundle. It's not just hotel and car rental and insurance. It is the fact we have Book the Cook for business class customers. It is the Wi-Fi proposition. It is all of the other attributes that make up the Singapore Airlines experience and justify the value of Singapore Airlines. So for us, it's not about selling ancillaries. It is about emphasizing the right ancillaries to trigger the purchase of an air ticket. That is only possible under an API NDC type distribution model where you're bundling the various attributes of the product, emphasizing them and selling them in a way that means something to the customer. A low-cost carrier, on the other hand, will deconstruct and sell each item independently. That's not the Singapore Airlines proposition, but it requires the same underlying technology. Because it's not just me, With the digitalisation strategy, the commercial side of the business does have a role to play. Fundamentally for Singapore Airlines, digitalisation is about empowering our people to provide better service. It is not digitalisation for its own sake. Some airlines or some industries are quite happy to use technology as their face to the customer. That's not us. Ours is a human face and it's supported by technology. So the technology that's that supports the cabin crew through their onboard iPad, using AI to quickly categorize and process and route customer feedback so that it can be dealt with faster and more accurately. Natural language processing for the likes of our app on Google Home. Many other of these applications of technology that are focused on making the customer experience better. Yeah, KrisPay is another example. It is a blockchain-based digital wallet that allows people with KrisFlyer account balance to pay as if it was Google Wallet or Apple Wallet, to pay for gas, to pay for groceries, and draw down their accrued points on day-to-day purchases. So therefore, just giving them more value to the points they earn and providing an extra consumer benefit.

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