UNEX Aviation & Travel

Our Aviation and Travel industry is facing tremendous disruption.

Digitalization, People Management and Sustainability are just a few of the core topics we can help your organization with. So, whether your key business is in Aviation, Rail, Cruise or Tours, let’s talk. 

Our Aviation & Travel topics

Strategy

Sustainability, Digitalization, Turnaround & Growth are the major drivers behind changing market conditions. UNEX supports clients to adopt early and stay profitable.  

Customer

UNEX supports clients in designing commercial models that take advantage of profit opportunities. Best in class Customer Focus, Retail & Sales, Marketing & Pricing, Products and Loyalty are the key levers.  

Analytics

Get new insights and identify new opportunities by combining Strategy, Aviation & Travel Expertise and Business Intelligence. See examples of our Power BI based projects in Aviation & Travel.

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Project examples Passenger Airlines

Global sales harmonization in over 40 countries

Challenge

  • A major full service airline wanted to harmonize its sales approach across all global markets, sales steering was to be optimized

Approach

  • After an international audit a global organizational blueprint was developed
  • Key headquarter functions and standardized KPI were installed

Outcome

  • The payback was 11 times higher than the project investment – already in year 1

Ancillary product development

Challenge

  • Additional revenue was to be earned from ancillary products. Our client, a low cost carrier airline, wanted to understand the ancillary potential of existing and new products

Approach

  • First we set up a Power BI based dashboard to measure profit contribution by ancillary product and by route
  • Based on these findings new Air- and Non-Air ancillary products were developed and priced

Outcome

  • Tripled profit contribution of ancillary revenue

Multi-Brand Distribution

Challenge

  • Our client, a leading multi brand airline group, suffered from duplicated functions and departments leading to an unfavorable cost position

Approach

  • We jointly designed centralized competence centers with local satellites to keep local identity

Outcome

  • Cost savings over 10x compared with project invest
  • Also the competence and thus quality within the functional centers was increased

Ancillary vs. Loyalty

Challenge

  • The revenue department of our client, a major airline group, aimed to sell upgrades, lounge access, etc. as ancillary products while the loyalty department wanted these products exclusively for the most valuable customers

Approach

  • We jointly set up a matrix to differentiate between loyalty and ancillary products
  • The key solution was to give elite customers the privilege to book upgrades etc. in advance, with higher availability, and partly discounted

Outcome

  • Substantial ancillary profit growth while keeping privileges for loyal customers

Pre- and Post Merger Integration

Challenge

  • Our client, the M&A department of a major travel company, wanted to evaluate multiple opportunities to grow by acquisition

Approach

  • In a detailed evaluation we compared commercial matching of fleet, network, systems, sales channels, etc.
  • To prepare for the takeover we also developed an integration plan to capture all potential benefits

Outcome

  • A well prepared and smooth merger was executed

Sales-Channel Shift

Challenge

  • Compared to new players in the market who mainly operated point to point the  cost of sales position of our client, a legacy carrier, was not competitive anymore

Approach

  • In a joint project with airline managers we developed multiple initiatives to shift sales towards less expensive channels
  • As a prerequisite some changes to the product display have been made. To enable this the distribution system infrastructure was modified

Outcome

  • The costs savings exceeded the investment 13-fold in year 1 alone

Project examples Cargo Airlines

Pricing Optimization

Challenge

  • Our customer, a cargo airline, suffered from mostly unused pricing agreements. Instead spot prices where used resulting in low margins and high labor costs

Approach

  • Contracts have been redesigned to meet customer requirements and the overall sales processes has ben professionalized
  • The spot pricing process has been optimized, partly automated and stales staff was trained to produce harmonized rate offerings

Outcome

  • Incremental profit exceeded investment by over 10x in year 1

Capacity steering

Challenge

  • Our client, a freighter operating cargo airline, suffered from insufficient revenue management steering

Approach

  • Automated access rate calculation based on single flight events
  • Self-steering and self-learning algorithms

Outcome

  • Double digit % profit increase
  • Quick response to changing demand

Automated stowage loss calculation

Challenge

  • High variance in stowage loss assumptions lead to lost revenue and unfavorable load-factors
  • The manual calculation process was slow and not harmonized

Approach

  • New automated stowage loss calculation based on a unique calculation method

Outcome

  • Real time calculation for speedy quotes
  • Better quality than manual calculation
  • Load factor increase by up to 5% for affected routes

Project Examples Customer Loyalty

Loyalty Joint Venture

Challenge

  • While in its home-market the loyalty program of our client, a leading travel company, was well known, it was rather unknown in many foreign markets
  • Our client asked us to generate ideas to optimize membership numbers and activity rates outside their home-market

Approach

  • The key idea was to partner with leading loyalty programs
  • We evaluated possible partners in key markets
  • A JV concept was developed

Outcome

  • We provided a business case calculation and step-by step implementation plan

Increased airline brand awareness by loyalty measures

Challenge

  • Our client, a travel company running its own loyalty program, suffered from little brand awareness in some overseas markets

Approach

  • The key idea was to partner with local loyalty program champions

Outcome

  • We have evaluated many partner options and identified a best partner fit
  • A go-to-market plan was developed incl. a business case calculation

Activation of loyalty scheme members

Challenge

  • Our client, an international multi-retailer and -travel program, suffered from low response rate on loyalty campaigns

Approach

  • We set up a complex test strategy to identify those incentives that best activate members
  • Key insights on response behavior were gained through Power BI based data analytics

Outcome

  • Increase of response rate by over 300%
  • Ongoing usage of Power BI dashboard to monitor promotion profitability

Selected work references

Swiss

What our customers say

“UNEX worked in partnership with our project team and provided valuable impulses for successful concepts.”

Thomas Dionisius as former Director at Lufthansa The Americas

“The joint development of solutions has motivated us very much. UNEX supports us creatively and well structured.”

Benjamin Pfeifer as former Director Strategy at Miles & More

“UNEX has quickly and competently developed a comprehensive result. I am very satisfied with the cooperation.”

Joost Greve as former Loyalty Manager of Lufthansa Hub Airlines

“UNEX has developed innovative concepts for us, which are highly analytical and very pragmatic at the same time. I am extremely satisfied with the cooperation.”

Boris Hueske as Vice President Lufthansa Cargo

“The way of cooperation makes the difference in the work with UNEX. Together we have achieved a lot during our six months project.”

Lars Kröplin as former project manager at Eurowings

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