SWISS flying high with new app
Booking flights, querying flight statuses, retrieving boarding cards – with practical functions like these, as well as many others, it’s not just frequent flyers who are impressed by the SWISS app. In terms of customer ratings, the app has put the Swiss airline in a leading worldwide position. Dr. János Heé, Manager of E-commerce at SWISS, reveals the secret of its success.
Mr. Heé, how many times has the SWISS app been downloaded?
The SWISS iPhone app featured in the top five most downloaded iPhone apps in Switzerland. More than 100,000 downloads were generated worldwide in the first few weeks. In addition, we provide the app for the BlackBerry, the Windows Phone 7 and, from mid-year onwards, for Android.
How many customers use the app to book their flights?
The trend is clear and very promising – flight sales are growing in double-digit figures, although they are still very limited compared with conventional online sales. We suspect that the large majority of app sales stem from a move away from the Web towards mobile applications.
Which target groups did the developers of the app focus on?
We didn’t target a particular user group. Our focus is on covering as wide a spectrum as possible, as we want to make flying easier for as many customer segments as we can. The SWISS app is designed as a “token” for our customers and should allow us to provide them with intelligent support for all service processes in the future. We also want to be able to reach and inform our customers immediately, if an unforeseen event such as a volcanic eruption occurs again.
What were the biggest technical challenges when developing the app?
Providing and documenting an interface from SWISS to the app was the biggest challenge. In addition, special cases caused us a great deal of work, particularly when setting up the native booking process – for codeshare flights, for example, we needed to work out how to store flight details when booking with a Miles and More profile and how to correctly display aircraft changes.
How did Swisscom support you?
During the development of the BlackBerry app, exchanging ideas with Swisscom proved very helpful. Swisscom gave us important input on the devices that needed to be covered, which is not always easy with BlackBerry. We also liaise with Swisscom about roaming costs.
How does the SWISS app rank in an industry comparison?
We are in a good position. According to an analysis, taking into account all apps (iPhone, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7), there is no airline in the domestic market that can boast as many ratings stars in the app distribution channels as SWISS. We are one of the few airlines to design the booking process natively. In addition, the shake function to display the boarding card and the navigation concept, which is tailored to the user, are unique among airline apps.
Read the full interview (PDF, 635 KB)