A new knowledge-sharing group for airlines with a buy-on-board programme will hold its first meeting in Hamburg to coincide with WTCE.
Called INK, the network was set up at the end of January and already has 35 airline members – 20 of them due to meet at the inaugural meeting on Monday April 7.
The group was set up by Laura Heijmann, Buy on Board Manager/ Inflight Sales Manager Transavia, Michelle Philpot, Inflight Commercial Manager easyJet, and Ilze Silina, VP Inflight Retail Norwegian.
The three wanted to create a community of like-minded peers, who work for airlines with a hybrid buy-on-board service model, in order to foster “innovation, growth, and excellence in airline operations while enhancing industry standards and customer experiences”.
The group also enables airlines to share failures, lessons learned and best practices and to share non-confidential data to benchmark performance and create a benchmark monitoring system.
“Last year at WTCE I was chatting with Michelle at easyJet and Ilze at Norwegian and we realised we were all facing the same challenges and opportunities with our buy-on-board service,” explained Heijmann.
“We were all facing the same challenges about how to motivate and incentivise our cabin crew, how to incentivise our passengers, sustainability, the growth of pre-ordering, choosing payment devices, connectivity and so on.
“Every airline faces the same challenges. So why reinvent the wheel when we can learn from each other?”
INK plans to meet twice a year to discuss key topics, starting with the meeting in Hamburg.
Alongside Transavia, easyJet and Norwegian, the airlines attending the first meeting include United Airlines, JetBlue, Air Canada, flydubai, allegiant and iberojet.
The group is supported by expertise from Wilbert de Louw, Founder & CEO Foodcase International, and Lance Hayward, Founder and MD The Hayward Partnership.
