Collecting passenger data can help airlines’ customer service and profitability soar, but as Cathay Pacific hack shows it can be a risky strategy
- Airlines are widening scope of data they collect from passengers, ranging from favourite cities and travel patterns to in-flight habits such as use of on-board Wi-fi and shows watched
- But if it goes wrong, they could find themselves managing the fallout of a data breach and scrambling to win back passenger trust
Data has the potential to be valuable cargo to airlines but the cyber hacking crisis that engulfed Cathay Pacific Airways in October has shown there is considerable risk along with reward.
Cathay CEO Rupert Hogg, speaking to the Post when he was second in command at the airline in December 2016, saw data as key to transforming the business and better understanding its customers – and ultimately making money from the information it had taken on board.
“We would love to know [more about our customers, information] that probably sits there and we just don’t know about it,” he said of the airline’s inexperience at making the best use of data.
“Intelligent businesses these days are looking for opportunities to use technology to drive ... real customer insight into the business, and that is something we’ve embarked on,” Hogg said at the time.
“The opportunities to do these things these days are much greater because of technology and the efficiencies and the ability to have much more data to analyse.”
