Commercial Challenges for Aviation

This report discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry, specifically British Airways, and suggests two innovative solutions to minimize the spread of the virus and attract travelers. The first solution is the implementation of antimicrobial security trays, and the second is thermal detection technology. These solutions will not only help the company overcome losses but also improve its brand image and customer engagement. The report concludes that airlines need to bring innovative ideas and provide travelers with a safe and healthy environment for their traveling to enhance customer engagement.

Commercial
Challenges for
Aviation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Selection of innovations – theme 1........................................................................................1
Selection of innovations – theme 2........................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Coronavirus was widely spread virus in year 2019 and is recognised as a global pandemic
which impacted various business and life of people. This virus was first determined in Wuhan,
China and it got spread from there in the whole world. Due to this virus government of various
countries implemented lock-down action in order to minimize the outbreak of this virus. These
lock-down caused severe impact on several industries including airlines industry (Cevik,
Bamford and Ho, 2020). British Airways is one the leading airline company in UK and it
headquarter is in London, England. The company was founded in the year 1974 on 31 March.
Because of this pandemic and travel restrictions, the airline company decided to retire its whole
fleet of Boeing 747 aircraft which was commonly known as 'The Queen of the Skies' (COVID-19
effect: British Airways to retire Boeing 747 fleet, 2020). The airline also faced a loss of around
€7.4bn in the last year which includes fuel expenses and currency hedges (British Airways owner
IAG hit by record €7.4bn loss, 2021). The airline called for passenger digital health passes to
reopen skies. The following report explains two new innovations which the company needs to
implement to minimize impact of COVID-19 and to overcome losses.
MAIN BODY
Selection of innovations – theme 1
Clear overview of the proposed ideas
British airways need to implement various innovative ideas that could help it in
minimizing the spread of COVID-19 and to attract travellers to choose their airlines (Ulak,
2020). One of the innovations which the airlines could bring is 'Antimicrobial security trays'.
As it has been observed that trays at airports are used by several people which increases the
chance of spreading bacteria from surfactant to them (Analytica, 2020). This increases possibility
of enhancing the spread of coronavirus and people could get infected by this. The cleaning and
maintaining of normal trays are very difficult to manage for airlines on daily basis. Hence, it is
very important for airline to execute this innovative idea in order to minimize bacterial or virus
transfer.
These trays work by killing the bacteria through damaging its cell membrane, DNA,
protein and other internal parts. These trays will help the airline in maintaining hygienic
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conditions at the airport and protect the luggage of people from any further infection. This
innovation will enhance the brand of the airline as this step would represent that the company is
concerned for wellness of people. These trays are durable and long lasting which will minimize
the production cost of the company as it does not have to invest a lot in these materials. They are
easy to maintain and clean which provide company an opportunity to organise these trays for its
customers. They are light weight, antistatic and stackable as well as low maintenance. These are
also suitable for automatic and manual return lanes at security checkpoints and also works in X-
ray and CT machines (Linares and et. al., 2020).
What this idea offers the airline
This innovation will help the airline in providing a safe and hygienic environment to their
travellers. As people after coronavirus prefer to travel from those airlines which provides safe
and secure conditions for travelling. This will also help companies in making its brand image in
the market as people will see that the company is very much concerned about the health of
travellers. This innovation will give company an opportunity to improve its hygiene standards
and also provide extra protection to employees and passengers. This will help the airline in
building trust among travellers which in result increase their loyalty towards it and they prefer to
travel in with it in the future also. As these trays are easy to maintain and long lasting which
helps company in reducing their production cost (Du and et. al., 2020). These trays also assist in
reducing microbial dispersal which are spread through touch of various people that could cause
various health issues other than coronavirus.
Selection of innovations – theme 2
Clear overview of the proposed ideas
Another innovation which the British airline company could execute to minimize the
impact of coronavirus is 'Thermal detection technology'. This technology will help the airline
in detecting which passenger is suffering from fever or have high body temperature. This system
involves a camera which is an infrared thermal and might possess a thermal reference source.
These thermal detection systems are used to measure skin temperature of a person without being
in physically contact with that individual (Manoharan, 2019). This system is not used to detect
COVID-19 but could be used to diagnose that someone is suffering for fever or not. As the major
symptom of this virus is fever which could be detected by this system at airports.
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This will assure that passengers could have safe and secure environment for their
travelling. Through this technological system company could ensure the safety of travellers as
they could pay extra attention towards passenger who has high body temperature (Keaney and et.
al., 2019). These thermal systems could not minimize the spread of the virus in the air but could
help in detecting high body temperature which ensures that people could take extra attention
towards their health. These systems are very effective and could help passengers to know their
body temperature. These thermal systems are non-contact methods which are used from safe
distance which is very necessary to keep in present time of coronavirus. There are various
benefits of installing these systems in the company which British airways could gain out of
which one is that they can keep a record of their passengers' health (Pundir and Malik, 2019). It
helps in detecting conditions of the people before these symptoms increases or become more
serious. These systems represent the real time condition of passengers through visual
representations which helps them in evaluating their health issues.
What this idea offers the airline
This innovation will help the company in improving its image in the public and market as
it shows that the company is concerned for the health of people. This will also help it in taking
necessary steps to treat people suffering from high body temperature or fever. This will make an
image of responsible business among people and they would appreciate its efforts of taking care
of their health. Screening is very offering important for airport to do of people so that they could
detect which person is having symptoms of COVID-19 (Shafi, Liu and Ren, 2020). This will also
ensure that the selected company is taking required precautions that are guided by government to
take. This innovation will assist the company in gaining loyalty of their potential passengers as
they would want to travel from those airlines which takes measures for their protection. This
innovation will also help company in taking care of health of their staff also as they are the key
element of the organisation. This will ensure that staff is also taking every precautionary measure
to stay safe and secure. This will also increase the customer engagement and attract new job
candidates which could help in the growth of the company.
By implementing these innovations within company, the British Airlines will be able to
gain competitive advantage over others. As now days people prefer to travel with those
airlines who are responsible and follow COVID-19 guidelines accurately executed by
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government. It will also become one of its strengths and could improve its image in the
market. These innovations will provide the organisation an opportunity to expand its
customer base in minimum time and would also make it more advanced in terms of
technology.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been analysed that COVID-19 has severely impacted
the business of various industries. Because of this virus lock-down and travelling restrictions
were implemented by government of different countries. These restrictions have impacted the
airline industry as government banned the travelling activities which caused losses to the
companies. It has also been evaluated that by execution of different innovations, companies
could overcome the losses they have faced due to coronavirus. These innovations will also assist
company in providing competitive advantages over others in the market as it would be able to
provide these facilities to their travellers. This will help the airlines in future also as new
technological advancement is the step towards globalisation. These innovations also provide
growth and success for the company which could help in enhancing its productivity. in in the
end, it could be said that airline companies need to bring innovative ideas as well as provide
travellers a safe and healthy environment for their travelling which could help it in enhancing
customer engagement.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Analytica, O., 2020. COVID-19 global climate impact may be brief. Expert Briefings, pp.2008-
09.
Cevik, M., Bamford, C.G.G. and Ho, A., 2020. COVID-19 pandemic—a focused review for
clinicians. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 26(7), pp.842-847.
Du, Y. and et. al., 2020. Damage detection techniques for wind turbine blades: A review.
Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 141, p.106445.
Keaney, L.C. and et. al., 2019. Keeping athletes healthy at the 2020 Tokyo summer games:
Considerations and illness prevention strategies. Frontiers in physiology, 10, p.426.
Linares, M.B. and et. al., 2020. Nutritional Attributes and Sensory Quality during Storage Time
of Spiced Lamb Burgers from Manchego Spanish Breed. Foods, 9(10), p.1466.
Manoharan, S., 2019. Image detection classification and recognition for leak detection in
automobiles. Journal of Innovative Image Processing (JIIP), 1(02), pp.61-70.
Pundir, C.S. and Malik, A., 2019. Bio-sensing of organophosphorus pesticides: A review.
Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 140, p.111348.
Shafi, M., Liu, J. and Ren, W., 2020. Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on micro, small, and
medium-sized Enterprises operating in Pakistan. Research in Globalization, 2,
p.100018.
Ulak, N., 2020. A preliminary study of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak: A
pandemic leading crisis in tourism industry of Nepal. Journal of Tourism and
Hospitality Education, 10, pp.108-131.
[Online]
British Airways owner IAG hit by record €7.4bn loss. 2021. Online Available Through:
<https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/26/british-airways-owner-iag-hit-by-
record-loss-covid>./
COVID-19 effect: British Airways to retire Boeing 747 fleet. 2020. Online Available Through:
<https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/covid-19-effect-british-airways-to-retire-
boeing-747-fleet/article32120676.ece>./
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