Aiming high with DeltaMaster

CityJet is an Irish airline based in Dublin. The company founded in 1994 serves various destinations in Western Europe from its hubs in London and Paris. CityJet became a member of INTRO Aviation in 2014 until it was sold after its restructuring. INTRO continues to advise the revenue management team post sale.

CityJet analyzes booking and service data with DeltaMaster. The airline uses this information to selectively manage fares and recognize trends at an early stage.

Highlights

  • Revenue forecasts with learning curves for bookings
  • Route analysis with small multiples
  • KPI analysis  
  • Fast implementation with fast results
  • Overview of booking classes  
  • Integrated analytic paths
  • Report distribution

High-speed implementation with DeltaMaster

As part of its acquisition of CityJet, INTRO Aviation needed to overhaul all Air France systems as quickly as possible. One mission-critical project was to build a data warehouse. The timeline, however, was extremely tight. The company needed to design the entire data warehouse, connect its reservation system Amadeus and other sources, build reports, and train its staff – all within just a few weeks.

INTRO Aviation chose DeltaMaster due to its impressive implementation speed. “Within the first few days of the project, our departments could already access productive report drafts and play an active role in the process,” recalls Marcus Kresin, SVP Airline Strategies and responsible for all IT related businesses. Newly formed teams within the departments quickly collected more detailed requirements, which were quickly implemented in DeltaMaster. “We ended our meetings with real report drafts – and not just ideas,” Kresin recalled.

Multi-factor prize management

Providing low prizes amidst rising costs is a major challenge in the airline industry. Internet portals have made flight fares more transparent and comparable for consumers. The competition among airports has increased as well. London alone has six departure airports, and passengers frequently choose the one offering the lowest fares. “Business Intelligence has become an essential part of our daily work so we can respond to these developments,” Kresin continued. “With DeltaMaster, we can manage fares precisely and recognize trends at an early stage.”  

Passenger data is essential to analyze and manage prizes. In particular, the company uses booking and sales data to understand the origins and booking behaviors of its clients. It then categorizes customers into various groups, for example, based on last-minute, mid-term, or long-term booking behavior. Using DeltaMaster, the company analyzes the availability of booking classes to ensure that each of them are offered to the right prize at the right moment.

Revenue forecasts with learning curves for bookings

CityJet uses forecasts to examine the current booking level for individual flights and compare it to the average flight booking curve. If there are variances, the company can immediately take action. If the flight booking rate is significantly higher than average, CityJet can raise the price for the remaining flights to increase margin. If the current bookings are below average, however, it must adjust the price to ensure the capacity utilization for the flight.  

KPI analysis

Aside from booking data, CityJet also analyzes key performance indicators with DeltaMaster. Since reliability is extremely important for the airline, it constantly monitors flight delays and cancelations and evaluates their causes. The company also closely examines its on-time statistics. Bad weather, high air traffic, late passengers, delayed luggage, and other causes of most delays are not under the airline’s control. Users can view these causes directly with the pivot navigation in DeltaMaster. As they drill down on the rows or columns of the original table, the software will automatically identify and display the factor having the greatest influence on that measure. This helps users quickly identify significant patterns – such as regular delays at the same airport – in order to find solutions to the problem.  

Route analysis with small multiples

CityJet also uses small multiples to evaluate various flight routes. This special report format in DeltaMaster repeats the same basic report design for several report components. The content changes while the structures stay the same. “These standardized, repeated analyses provide a common overview on the performance of individual routes in comparison to the entire route network,” explains Kresin.

To distribute the reports, the company uses DeltaMaster ReportServer, which offers automated functions for updating, generating, and distributing reports. The information consumers in the company range from analysts to mobile users and airport staff. The various publishing options gives CityJet all of the configuration options it needs and has drastically simplified the process of informing users across the company.