FlightStats, the Portland, Ore.-based flight performance information company, this month rolled out a real-time itinerary monitoring system that enables companies and travel agencies to track every traveler and every flight. After completing a beta-test of the system late last month with several clients of Air Fulfillment Services, a group air planning and reservation company, the company now claims 12 customers have signed up for the Web-based technology that FlightStats developed with Cornerstone Information Systems.
"What makes it really unique and valuable to us is that, instead of having multiple agents tracking down every passenger name record connected to a group, we can link them all together. The agent goes onto the Web site and pulls complete status reports on the entire group, so we know where everybody is," according to Yvonne Long, senior vice president of Air Fulfillment Services.
Furthermore, Long said the technology allows Air Fulfillment Services to be proactive in rebooking travelers who may have missed a connecting flight or whose second trip segment was cancelled, as well as notify event and meeting planners that attendees or keynote speakers will be late.
"It gives a real opportunity to communicate resolutions, rather than problems," said Meara McLaughlin, vice president of business development for FlightStats.
According to Alan Minton, vice president of marketing for Cornerstone, the technology also helps curtail costs to travel programs. "The cost it would take to supply the human labor to deliver that service to each and every traveler would be prohibitive," he said. "I do know many agencies that charge for calls asking what the gate change is. By providing the corporation the ability take a look at that, they can lower their costs that way as well."
Long expected to save 80 percent in productivity costs by having access to real-time itinerary monitoring.
The service operates by integrating itineraries housed in Cornerstone's IBank data warehouse with FlightStats itinerary monitoring system. FlightStats pushes the itineraries back to the company in real-time, and corporations can log on to the Web site with a username and password.
Next Steps In TrackingFlightStats' next step, said McLaughlin, is to work with Cornerstone on a messaging solution to alert travelers to itinerary changes.
Risk management companies IJet Intelligent Risk Systems and International SOS already have similar technology in place. At a client's request, IJet is at work on a two-way notification system. "We can send a message to an employee that, for example, says, 'Are you in Lebanon? Here's what's going on and this is what you need to do: Press number 1 to acknowledge receipt of this message, press number 2 if you need immediate assistance,' " Marty Pfinsgraff, COO of the company, told BTN recently
(BTN, Sept. 11). "We can track whether the employee is OK and immediately triage the people affected."
Meanwhile, International SOS is developing traveler-tracking tools focused on a destination or a flight number, said COO Tim Daniel. "We have a request now for much more up-to-date information to reflect which flights are being cancelled or postponed—today you can get that, but you have to go to multiple systems," he said. "We're looking at integrating all those data feeds into one dashboard."