AirAsia Berhad : India launches the ‘RedSmart’ app

National, 14th July'20: AirAsia India launched an aviation analytics app that helps improve operational efficiency of the airline by monitoring and helping manage the aircraft turnaround data between flights in real time. The digital launch had Mr. Sunil Bhaskaran, MD & CEO, AirAsia India, Mr. Shankar Narayanan, President and Global Head Retail, CPG, Travel and Hospitality, Tata Consultancy Services, along with other senior management officials from AirAsia and TCS come together for the occasion.

AirAsia India and TCS collaborated on this project which kicked off with workshops to design a best-in-class system with state-of-the-art technology to capture all the Precision Time Schedule (PTS) activities (activities carried out for an aircraft turnaround during base and transit departures) through 'Program RedSmart'. The RedSmart app is designed to provide the airline with a holistic approach to handling and managing flight operation details and managing cost efficiencies. In order to improve operational efficiency and deliver a superlative customer experience, the RedSmart app captures the PTS activities in real time on a digital platform. With the launch of RedSmart, AirAsia India's Operational Control Center (OCC) has real-time situational awareness that helps drive improvements in aircraft utilization and leads to improved On-Time Performance to deliver on customer experience.

Some of the key features of the RedSmart app include:

• Real Time Data, improving visibility on Precision Time Schedule activities carried out for all flights.

• Data Analytics, with insights on improvement opportunities through data driven decisions.

• Improvement in Operational Efficiency and On-Time Performance

• Increasing the Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Speaking at the launch of RedSmart, Mr. Sunil Bhaskaran, MD & CEO,AirAsia India said, 'As an airline that has consistently embraced technology to deliver operational efficiency and enhance our guest experience, the introduction of RedSmart will help further automate operational processes inflight and on-ground. We're delighted to partner with TCS, known for its futuristic technology solutions to launch RedSmart, the first of its kind in the aviation industry in India.'

Mr. Shankar Narayanan, President and Global Head Retail, CPG, Travel and Hospitality, Tata Consultancy Services added 'TCS has a legacy of leveraging new technology to enable path breaking solutions. The RedSmart app is yet another initiative to create a platform to simultaneously monitor and report on several close-knitted aviation operational processes to facilitate frictionless operations, enable better guests experience and save costs. This collaboration with AirAsia India is a step forth to foster rapid innovation in the country and focus on the digitisation of processes to ensure the safety of employees during these unprecedented times by minimising touchpoints by using a paperless process also focusiing on sustainability.'

AirAsia India started User Acceptance Testing of RedSmart on 22nd May 2020 with real-time end to end trials commencing from 17th June 2020. Punctuality is a key performance indicator in the airline industry and AirAsia India's close monitoring of Net Promoter Score data from its guests indicates that carriers with benchmark On-Time Performance (OTP) outperform on NPS and are a critical hygiene factor in delivering to customer experience expectations. AirAsia has consistently ranked #1 or #2 on On Time Performance through 2020 as reported by the DGCA, while maintaining the lowest cancellation rate for the last 12 months amongst all major commercial airlines in India and the lowest complaints rate among LCCs. With the advent of RedSmart, AirAsia India endeavours to set new benchmarks and further enhance On Time Performance with real-time alerts that help minimise delays with proactive corrective measures. Maintaining top-notch OTP also helps in keeping the airline costs under check by enabling reduced aircraft utilisation in stipulated routing, time-saving on engine hours usage and leasing amounts, better utilization of crew and cost savings and delay curve savings per minute.

With the onset of the new normal in travel, turnaround times have a necessitated increase to enable high levels of sanitisation and disinfection and upkeep high levels of hygiene and safety, which the airline is able to keep a tab on with utmost precision. RedSmart gives AirAsia India the critical edge to help improve turnaround times and on time performance, enabling cost efficiencies while delivering greater guest satisfaction.