BA NEWS • August 2014
The future of flying: BA’s big ideas
From supersonic commercial flights to fully flat beds, British Airways has pioneered groundbreaking ideas in aviation. And it doesn’t stop there – The Club takes a look at six recent and upcoming innovations
Digital bag tags
Growing numbers of us check in, choose seats and load our boarding passes on our smartphones before arriving at the airport. To speed up the experience further, BA has been trialling a permanent bag tag with an ‘e-ink’ display, for release this year. The tag is updated via a key on a smartphone, transferring the booking information to create the barcode and data needed.
Appy days
The new BA app, which launched in May, has been tweaked to make travel faster and more efficient. Executive Club Members can not only access their boarding pass from their phones, but also check the weather in their destination, keep on top of their Avios and even book their next trip. The app also synchs your devices through your ba.com account, so if you search for a flight or holiday on your smartphone, it will be stored on your iPad, laptop or desktop (and vice versa) when you next log on.
The magic of flight
Tapping into children’s fascination with planes, BA created advertising billboards using ‘digital wizardry’ to turn heads. Set up alongside busy London roads, the ad – a part of the #lookup campaign – showed a virtual child who, distracted by the sound of a real aircraft flying overhead, stood up and pointed to it. As he did so, the aircraft’s flight number and original destination flashed up on the display, alongside information such as ticket prices for its country of origin. The ad involved custom-built technology and, according to BA’s Abigail Comber, was designed to “remind people how amazing flying is and how accessible the world can be”.
Happiness blanket
To monitor how relaxed customers felt during flight, this summer BA tested ‘happiness blankets’ (pictured) made of a fabric that incorporates fibre-optic cables attached to LED lights. Eight volunteers wore Bluetooth headsets to measure electrical fluctuations in their brains. The blankets lit up red for ‘less relaxed’ to blue for ‘very relaxed or sleeping’. Bronze Executive Club Member Claude Jarrard, one of the testers, says, “Magical is a good word to describe the blanket. Mine certainly liked Champagne, turning blue with every sip.”
Customised reward flights
The Executive Club tested a Reward Alerts flight availability email this year, targeting destinations based on Members’ previous behaviour. The destinations promoted were based on their tier points, Avios balance and redemption availability from London. It’s still in its trial stage, but the aim is to help Members find the flights they want or provide alternative inspiration.
Digitalising the flight deck
Both of the airline’s next generation planes, the A380 and 787 Dreamliner, are equipped with electronic flight bag systems. These replace the paper-based manuals and processes that pilots previously had to carry around. As well as removing round 80kg in paper weight, the e-bag streamlines delivery of operational data both on and off the aircraft.
This article has been tagged BA, Technology