YOU’VE GOT 24 HOURS TO CHANGE AIR TRAVEL
於24小時內將航空旅遊改寫JAMES DURSTON reports from Cathay Pacific’s 24-hour ‘Hackathon’ James Durston於國泰航空舉行的24小時Hackathon程式設計馬拉松
It’s a beautiful sunny Sunday in late autumn and an IT student is hurtling through a corridor inside Cathay Pacific’s headquarters. ‘HDMI! I need an HDMI cable!’ she shouts, panting.
There are just seconds until the end of the 24-hour event she and 130 other Hong Kong IT students have been a part of. She’s sleep-deprived, over-caffeinated and about to pitch her team’s idea to the judges.
It’s an adrenaline-fuelled conclusion to Cathay Pacific’s second ‘Hackathon’ – an invitation to designers, developers and product masters to help shape the future inflight experience with technology. The best product wins air tickets to anywhere in the Cathay network and the prestige of being the 2017 Hackathon Champions. You wouldn’t want to sacrifice that by being one HDMI cable short.
While travel pundits and futurologists have fun predicting how travel will look in 50, 100 or 500 years time (quick trip around Mars anyone?), the work happening in labs and offices is a little less headlinegrabbing. But it has the advantage that these innovations should occur within the lifetime of anyone reading this article.
‘One of the products from last year’s Hackathon that helps friends sync their holiday bookings will be rolled out for use soon,’ says Lawrence Fong, general
manager IT solutions at Cathay Pacific. ‘And another app that allows passengers to order blankets or water inflight from their phone, which means crew can bring them straight away in one trip, will be developed later for inflight service.’
It’s a sign that Cathay considers these events and the ideas that emerge from them as more than just branding or goodwill exercises. And it’s not alone.
Several years ago KLM launched its Meet & Seat feature, where passengers can share their Facebook, LinkedIn or Google+ profiles and then choose seatmates based on their social media profiles, creating interesting networking and socialising opportunities.
Now things have ramped up several notches, with airlines making major investments into tech startup incubators.
Malaysia Airlines, keen to transform itself into a ‘digital airline’, set up in-house innovation lab iSpace earlier this year as a testing ground for new ideas. The winners of its own hackathon event are already hunkered down inside, working on products including an interactive social media app that offers personalised destination content and an upgrade bidding app.
IAG, the airline group that includes British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus, is in its second year of running its Hangar 51 accelerator programme designed to support air travel startups. This year the startups include Airstripe, a crowdsourcing service that allows passengers to create flights and share them with other passengers; Destygo, an artificial intelligence platform that creates customer assistant chatbots for travel companies; and Inflight VR, a virtual reality ecosystem for the inflight entertainment industry.
‘Only a few airlines are fully embracing the potential of technology,’ says Ben Vogel, editor of Jane’s Airport Review. ‘It can be expensive, but airlines need to make the most of the “Internet of Things” and big data. Blending biometrics and inflight entertainment, enhanced personalisation, secure payments of onboard purchases, a biometrics-based inflight border preclearance…you’d no longer have to spend hours in a queue at immigration – imagine what that would do to the passenger experience.’
But which initiatives are we likely to see in the next five to 10 years?
‘ We can expect to see a fully tailored experience based on individual preferences, both at the airport and inflight,’ says Vogel. ‘Plus greater inflight connectivity opening up new streams such as inflight shopping, and fast inflight broadband so that passengers can access the same services in the air as on the ground.’
Can’t wait till you’re home to finish the latest Netflix series or desperately need to show your YouTube followers the inflight meal? That could soon be possible.
What do airlines get in return? Loyalty – repeat business – if they do it right. And insights. As customers we have a valuable currency to trade in return for
深秋時分某個陽光充沛的星期日，一名資訊科技學生在國泰航空總部的走廊上飛奔，上氣不接地下氣 大叫：「HDMI日高多清 媒體介面） ！我需要一條HDMI傳！輸」線
她和另外130位香資港 訊科技學生正參與一個為期24小時的比賽，而馬比賽 上就要結束。了 她徹夜不寐，靠大量啡咖 來提神，並準備向評眾 審介紹團隊的成果。
這個比賽就是國泰航空舉辦的第二屆Hackathon，臨近尾聲時，更過程 加緊張刺激。項這 活動邀請介面設計、師 程式開發者和產品經理參加，請他們利用科技來塑造未來的機上體驗。計設 出最佳產品團的隊可獲得飛往國泰航空網絡任何航點的機票，獲以及 得2017年Hackathon冠軍的榮銜。參賽團隊當不然 想因為缺乏一條HDMI傳輸線而錯失這個大好機會。
正當一眾旅遊達人和未來學者雀躍地猜想旅遊於50年、100年或500年是會什麼樣子日有參誰想環加 遊火星短的 途旅行？ ）的時候，實室辦室驗 和 公 裡的工作就相對顯得平平無奇。然而這些工作好是的 處 腳踏實地，任何一個正在閱讀這篇文章的人，都有能有可 於 生之年，見到從中產生的創意成為現實。
國航泰 空電子商貿總經理方逸翔表示：「其中一件快將推出的產品是來自去年Hackathon的概念，可讓乘客存取和對照朋友的假方計。劃 另一個應用程式讓乘客可透過手提電話預留在機上使用的毛氈飲或用水，讓機組人員能夠馬上把一切準備妥當，須毋 來回奔走。應這個 用程式將於日後開發，成為機艙服務的一環。」
這表國航對示 泰 空 於這類活動和當中產生的意念十分重視，並非純粹將之視為品牌宣傳或親善活動。而且業界在這方面還有同不少 道中人。
數年前，荷蘭皇家航空推出一項名為Meet & Seat的功能，讓乘客分享其Facebook、LinkedIn或Google+的個人檔案，然後根據社交媒體個人簡介選擇鄰座乘客，從而造就有趣的聯誼和社交機會。
現時，不少航空公司則更上層樓，積極投放資源於初創企業培育中心上。
馬西航來 亞 空正積極轉型為「數碼航空公司」，於今年初在公司內部開設創新實驗室iSpace，對各種嶄新的意念進行試驗。在馬航舉的辦 hackathon活動裡勝出的團隊，目已駐驗前 進 實 室進行產品開發， 括一個互動社交媒體應用程式，可按照乘客個人喜好提供目的地訊資 ，以及一個客艙升級競投應用程式。
國際航空集團日IAG升旗航下 空公司括英國航空、西班牙國航家 空和愛爾蘭航空，今年辦舉 第二屆Hangar 51創業加速器計，劃 支援航空旅行界初業 的 創企業。今年參與計劃的初創企業括籌務眾 服Airstripe，讓乘客自行創設航班，並與其他乘客共享；還有人工智能平台Destygo，為旅行社創建協助顧客的聊天機械；人 以及專為機上娛樂業界而設的虛擬實境生態系統Inflight VR。
《Jane’s Airport Review》誌輯雜編Ben Vogel表「示： 現時只有少數航空公司能充分利用科技的潛能。雖然可能成本高昂，航空公司也要充分利用物聯網和大數據的力量將， 生物識別技術和機上娛樂共冶爐一 ，更使之 迎合乘客的個人喜好，並且讓乘客在機上購物時可安全付款，以及利用以生物識別技術為基礎，提供機境上 外預先關清 的服務，讓乘客不必花大量間時排隊輪候入境。如能這樣做，必定會令乘客有更更方便 快捷的體驗。」
不過，望可 於未來五至年實十 內 現的項目會是什麼？
Vogel指出：「我們可望在機場和機上提供根據個人喜好全面度身訂造的體驗。機與界上 外 的連繫亦將開拓新境界， 括提供機上購物和高速的機上寬頻網絡，讓乘客置身空中亦可獲得所有在地面享能夠用的服務」。
在歸家前急已 不及待想看畢整套最新的Netflix劇，集 或是急欲與你的YouTube追隨者分享機上餐膳？這些願望不久就會成真。
航空公司這樣做，又能得獲 什麼回報？要是能確切乘的實 合 客 需要，可以提升乘客的忠誠度，令他們成為航空公司
a smoother experience: our data, if we’re willing to share it.
Cathay Pacific rolled out Wi-Fi on its A350s last year, one of the more than 50 airlines around the world that now offer it.
Looking slightly further ahead, things get even better, or scarier, depending on your outlook. ‘ The trends we see are artificial intelligence, like chatbots, coming together with big data,’ says Professor Erwin Huang, a tech entrepreneur and one of the judges at the Cathay Pacific Hackathon. ‘If this is used well it can change the world.’
For the winners of the Hackathon (see below), their world has already shifted a little bit. They’ve been offered fast-track access to Cathay’s IT trainee programme and their app, designed to make inflight service quicker and easier, could well be one of those given the ‘make it real’ treatment. 的常客，並且獲得乘客提供的寶貴意見。顧客提供的個人體驗資料價值不菲，要是顧客願意將之與航空公司分享，可以換來更舒暢的體驗。
現時全球已有超過50家航空公司提供機上無線上網服務，而國泰航空亦於去年加入這個行列，在旗下的空中巴士A350機隊提供無線上網服務。
稍為放眼未來，情況可能日趨完善，或是教人擔憂，視乎你持什麼觀點。科技企業家黃岳永教授是國泰航空Hackathon的評判之一，他表示：「聊天機械人等人工智能伴隨著大數據而來，是我們有目共睹的趨勢。要是用得其所，將會改變世界。」
但對於Hackathon的冠軍團隊（參閱下文）而言，他們的世界已稍有改變。他們可優先申請國泰航空的資訊科技實習生計劃，而那個由他們設計，讓乘客享有更快捷簡便機艙服務的應用程式，更有可能成為正式推出的產品。