The modern airline industry handles millions of passengers every day and is in a constant ordeal to make itself better. With the increase in the number of passengers, airline companies and airports have rapidly adopted innovative technologies to handle passenger requests, deliver information and get the most out of their existing resources.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots have helped companies in communicating efficiently with passengers and deliver phenomenal experience. According to a report by SITA, 68% of airlines and 42% of airports are using AI-driven chatbots. In fact, Artificial Intelligence is one of the top 5 emerging technologies for airline companies with 52% of them looking to invest in AI in the coming period.

Why have Chatbots suddenly become popular in the airline industry?

Chatbots are designed to enhance the customer experience and airlines are desperate on scoring better on this front. Chatbots can be developed by airlines to provide prompt support and answers to common queries of the passengers.

A conversational chatbot helps airlines save resources by providing answers to all common queries like:

• Boarding pass queries
• Flight information
• Reservation details
• Common queries regarding arrival/departure

AI-powered chatbots have allowed airlines to automate the process of answering common queries. This ensures that they don’t have to appoint a dedicated representative to answer all calls and at the same time provide a quick response to the passengers. Also, when compared to a human representative that demand decent pay for answering repetitive queries, it is economical for companies to develop a chatbot that can handle queries 24×7.

Benefits of Chatbots for the airline Industry

AI chatbots are an innovative technological breakthrough that is increasingly becoming popular all over the world. According to Business Insider, 67% of customers have already interacted with a chatbot for customer service support.

Airlines are increasingly investing in chatbot development to deal with their critical operational and service issues. Here are some of the ways chatbots are making airlines smarter, better and more efficient.

• Improved customer service

Chatbots are capable of handling customer queries 24×7 and provide real-time information in case of an emergency. At the same time, chatbots don’t come with the time zone and linguistic problems as they can be programmed to work anyway your customers want them to.

When a customer has a conversational bot to answer all the queries, it leads to improvement in customer experience, which elevates an airline’s brand image.

• Higher engagement

Chatbots can enhance customer engagement by providing information, assisting customers in booking a flight ticket, fulfilling a customer request and gathering all information at a single place. This engages customers in a better way than lengthy waiting times to connect with airline representatives via the call.

• Revenue growth opportunities

Chatbots are increasingly transforming from a customer support facilitator to an agile solution that can harness upselling opportunities. By adding payment gateways, offers and transactional capabilities to a chatbot, airlines can boost conversion rates and enhance their revenues.

According to HubSpot, 47% of the customers are open to buying product/services from a chatbot. This creates a massive opportunity to sell, crosssell or upsell in-flight services/other services for airline operators.

• Streamlined and integrated data access

Chatbots can collect and bring all flight information and data on a single platform that customers can access from anywhere, anytime. Chatbots can keep a record of all the conversations with the customers and can also provide useful insights to the airlines about their preferences, booking history, issues, etc. The streamlined data access opportunity for end customers as well as for airlines can make the industry operationally more efficient.

• Saves time and efforts

By integrating an omnichannel, conversational chatbot, airlines can save a lot of time and efforts in handling customer queries. As chatbots can keep answering routine queries around the clock, companies can employ human resources to more valuable tasks, activities and complex problems. This will save a lot of time and energy and will ultimately bring efficiencies in customer service and engagement process.

• Economical query resolution solution for airlines

Developing a chatbot that works round the clock is a much more economical option for airlines than hiring and paying human resources. Once developed and deployed, chatbots can automate the query resolution process. This reduces the need for outsourcing customer queries to care centers, which brings down operational costs.

Wrapping Up

Airline operators, as well as airports, are looking for innovative ways to address common issues of an increasing passenger pool. With technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and chatbots, airlines can perform much better than before. Chatbots are revolutionizing the entire travel industry and aerospace industry is sure to benefit from an AI-driven chatbot development. If you are keen on exploring the potential of chatbots for your business, get in touch with an expertArtificial Intelligence development company like Azilen, today.