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CASE STUDY

Automation in Aviation: Faster and more Accurate Cancellations and Refunds for a Top US Airline

Summary

Over the past two decades, automation has become a vital part of aviation business operations. The introduction of robotic process automation (RPA) in the airline industry helped create significant efficiencies in typical workflows. However, gaps that remained in the airline business processes were revealed when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. All major global airlines struggled to keep up with flight rescheduling, cancellations, and refunds. Airline companies that had put in place automation for these processes were able to weather the inundation of requests better than others, but even their automation systems were overburdened during such a critical period, accentuating the need for rapid scaling, and updating.

Top Challenges in Airline Automation

When our client, a leading American airline, had to process an overload of flight cancellations, refunds and postponements due to the pandemic, they experienced a widespread system shock. Requests from customers came through multiple channels: phone calls, emails, online queues and more. This resulted in excess pressure on their customer service teams. Due to the sheer volume of requests, manual errors crept into the processes. There were multiple dimensions to the challenges they faced, including:

  • Maintaining accuracy in request processing
  • Updating flight information
  • Sending cancellation notifications
  • Readjusting travel schedules
  • Supporting customer service personnel
  • Making price adjustments based on volume

These challenges impacted thousands of flights, and hence had to be handled accurately in real-time.

Building Downstream Automation for Airlines

JIFFY.ai partnered with the airline to build automation solutions that created efficiencies and removed bottlenecks in request processing. We revamped the client's ticketing processes using our AI-powered Intelligent Automation solution to significantly reduce manual intervention and consequent errors. In less than six weeks, thousands of hours of backlog were cleared through end-to-end automated downstream processing of:

Outbound requests

Return requests

Cancellations

Refunds

Coupon and price management

Saving Time, Effort and Cost with Intelligent Automation in Aviation

With our intelligent automation solution, we enabled our client to realize a more efficient workflow support structure. At the outset, the challenges they had been facing were indicative of situation several other airlines and logistics service providers were in during the global pandemic. Even though the airlines industry had embraced automation decades ago, we helped our client to achieve the true benefits of it, which were far beyond robotic process automation. We accomplished much more than they had thought possible, including:

Clearing thousands of hours of manual paperwork backlog

Reducing overall contact center volumes, response times, and operating costs

Saving 2000+ person hours of work for staff members

Processing nearly 100,000 transactions in 6 weeks

Automating 96% of refund queue transactions without manual intervention

Digital transformation in telecom industry: Male outside on building roof with mobile phone

We Can Help You Build and Scale Automation for Your Airline

Yes, we can help you see automation through a new lens; we can enable you to unlock unseen possibilities in your airline business by transforming the way you use automation. Our intelligent automation solutions are highly configurable and scalable and can be quickly set up to run seamlessly with your current technology landscape.

Spend less time and resources on developing and monitoring robotic process automation so you can focus more on spreading your wings wider.

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