As part of its innovation strategy, United Airlines is exploring areas such as robotics & automation to drive a smoother travel experience. Ahead of her participation in the Digital & Innovation conference at FTE Global (Los Angeles, 19-21 September 2023), Kristen Berndt, Senior Manager, Baggage Strategy & Innovation, United, explains the airline’s key efforts to streamline the passenger experience, better leverage data, and embrace emerging technologies.
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Berndt is speaking at FTE Global in a session focused on ‘The role of Innovation: How can air transport go to the next level, and learn from other industries?’
“Innovation is an intimidating concept for many people,” Berndt shares. “With it comes a fear of failure, especially with cutting-edge technologies that have not yet been proven at full scale. There is a certain level of risk that comes along with being an innovator – a risk that you will fail, that the technology won’t work, that your employees won’t adopt it, that your financial investment will be wasted – you name it. But being an innovator also comes with a great deal of satisfaction if you are successful. And testing new technologies in a stepwise, calculated fashion can help to mitigate risk and set you up for that success.”
There are many examples of other industries that have leveraged robotics to transform their factories or warehouses to fully automated environments, such as the manufacturing and material handling industries. “While the airline industry may be a few years behind in comparison on integrating robotics, we can learn a lot from how these industries have embraced technology and adapted to change,” says Berndt. “Change management in the face of technology is not a new concept; we as a society have been adjusting to new inventions since the industrial revolution and other transformational milestones throughout our history. By studying our past, we can position ourselves for the future.”
Leveraging data to drive key insights and better serve passengers
Airlines, of course, collect an enormous amount of data and the conference session in which Berndt is participating will also explore how the air transport sector could better leverage data and innovate to improve performance and better serve passengers. “The key to success is being able to leverage that data to drive key insights, which is even easier than it used to be with all the sophisticated data visualisation tools, reporting tools, and machine learning capabilities that exist today,” Berndt explains. “Bag tracking is an excellent example of an area where we collect a great deal of data, and when paired with the next generation of bag tracking devices, computer vision systems, and biometrics, we’ll have much more robust bag tracking abilities in the future.”
Robotics & automation: “We are beginning to see many exciting technologies emerge in the marketplace”
United is embracing cutting-edge technologies in the robotics & automation space. One example is efforts to transform baggage handling, which is a highly manual and strenuous process. “Employees are expected to repeatedly lift bags from place to place, which takes a toll on the body,” says Berndt. “United is looking at ways to make our employees’ jobs easier, while also driving operational efficiencies. We are beginning to see many exciting technologies emerge in the marketplace to solve these problems, including autonomous baggage carts, robotic solutions for loading and unloading bags, automated aircraft pushback solutions, and others. We’re exploring many of these opportunities and are excited to gain insights into what solutions will work best for United and the greater airline industry.”
One robotics initiative already underway is United’s collaboration with WHILL, with the aim of making airport terminal transport more accessible using autonomous personal mobility devices. “We are exploring a partnership with WHILL to test these autonomous wheelchairs at one of our United hubs,” says Berndt. “While many of our customers book traditional wheelchair pushing services, these autonomous wheelchairs would allow us to capture a larger subset of the population, like travellers who have difficulty walking longer distances or folks with an injury who may not have booked traditional wheelchair services as part of their reservation.”
Meanwhile, the pandemic affected every company and industry in unique ways, with the airline industry feeling the impacts of the labour shortage across the network. Berndt explains that United recognised the importance of effective resource management and invested in INFORM’s real time staff management tool. “Now that travel demand is back in full swing, and with the continued demand and projected growth ahead of us, the optimisation capabilities of this tool will enable United to utilise resources most effectively, which ultimately drives a smoother travel experience for our passengers.”
“There will undoubtedly be some incredible work being showcased at FTE Global”
Looking ahead, Berndt is excited about the opportunities presented by FTE Global – widely renowned as “the CES for aviation” and this year co-located with APEX/IFSA Global EXPO – to network, learn, forge new partnerships, collaborate and be inspired to transform the passenger experience, business performance and innovation strategies. “In this post-Covid era of air travel, more passengers are travelling the world than ever before. To meet that demand, all the players in this space are working to be more innovative, more creative, and more accommodating. It’s an exciting time in our industry, and there will undoubtedly be some incredible work being showcased at FTE Global!”
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