In a time of unprecedented digital growth that shows no sign of slowing, one would think that airlines would be reaping the benefits of cutting-edge technology yielding simplified and flawless operations.

All signs point to: airlines should be killing it now that booking systems and team resources are more than carrier pigeons and pilots looking out the window for landmarks (I’m speculating wildly here, but you catch my drift).

So what gives?

We never asked to shoulder the burden of your postal needs

In recent weeks we’ve seen everyone from disgruntled passengers to the press race to start playing the blame game. Their main target is airlines and their supposed reticence to invest in their technological systems.

But…they are investing in their technological systems. In fact, not to name names, but one airline actually invested upwards of 15% of the annual budget into new, cutting-edge software.

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While it can be tempting to boil down issues to the skeletal whispers of reasons as to what went wrong, it’s important here to acknowledge the real factors if we want anything to actually change. It’s easy to speculate when you’re on the outside, but the truth of the matter is airlines are bearing the brunt of a technological marketplace that is very unmotivated in terms of keeping up with flying in the 21st century.

A ruthless reality for airlines looking to invigorate their operating systems. There are only a few major players in the aviation industry when it comes to available CMSs- You can invest till the gigabytes come home, but if you’re options are severely limited, there’s little to be done inside the confines of what’s available.

Aviation is a completely different ballgame when it comes to marketing, analysis, etc, and unfortunately there is no real road map when it comes to developing a tech strategy that works in tandem with the more mundane business side of things. Airlines are essentially out there pioneering their way through a digital world without a roadmap, and they’re foraging for new or better solutions of which, again, are few and far between.

The players that be mentioned in number 1 were built alongside airlines as they went digital way back when, which means that any advances have been more of “add-ons” from different vendors. Hence, these additions play real nice with the core CMS, and are absolutely feral with each other. There’s literally no integrative capability, so if you’re payroll and you gotta talk to a crewmember…good luck. And again, we find the unifying sore spot of: the main digital players don’t want to make a fully integrated system- why should they? They’re the only game in town. Sure, there are systems that try to bridge the gaps, but they’re costly and don’t work all that well- things always get lost in translation.

It was working in this broken system (and trust us, through no real fault of the airline, the system is very broken) we saw a need and decided to not only fill it (again see #3) but fill it well. Our approach has never been to simply create one off products to work outside the systems in place. Sure, they’re not perfect, but they are the industry standard, and finding ways to work within them is a much better use of your time and our technological talents. It’s all very “the call is coming from inside the house” but it works.

We bridge the gaps in every arena – think wheel and spokes instead of highway straight to your CMS. We also utilize automation wherever we can, in every department, so that on top of easier communications, your team has more reaction time for the things that matter.

We know there’s a lack of good tech available, and we know it could be better out there- that’s why we started this company, and that’s why we hope to help airlines just like yours find new and better ways to make their software serve them. Not the other way around.