Qatar Airways is giving iPhones to its entire workforce of cabin crew with the aim of delivering a more personalized service through an in-house developed app that will deliver real-time insights about flight information and customers.
The Doha-based carrier will distribute around 15,000 iPhones to cabin crew over the course of the next few months and then plans to expand the rollout to ground staff at Hamad International Airport and overseas airports and lounges.
The phones will come loaded with an in-house developed app that displays flight information and gives crew members access to personal data about passengers such as their frequent flyer status, special service requests and meal choices.
Until now, this information was only available to senior crew members who have carried an iPad for some time or via a ‘Passenger Information List’ that’s printed from an old-fashioned dot matrix printer.
Along with flight and customer information, the app also comes loaded with digital training materials.
Presumably, this is just the first phase of the airline’s digital transformation, and other apps will become available in the near future.
Cabin crew at many other airlines wielding digital devices such as iPhones and iPads has become fairly routine in the last five years, so in some ways, it’s pretty surprising that it has taken Qatar Airways this long to supply its crew members with a comparable solution.
While not popular with all passengers, cabin crew at regional rival Emirates have used digital devices loaded with a suite of bespoke apps to take meal orders in its Business Class cabin since 2017. The devices also allow crew to access customer information and training materials.
“frequent flyer status, special service requests and meal choices”
From the title I was expecting “marital history, political views and internet history”.
Good article, although the headline is a bit misleading… I’m a strong proponent of safeguards limiting PII as much as anyone, although the PII that Qatar is providing to their Cabin Crews seems relatively benign and useful for improving their in-flight experience. Also, as the article correctly notes, the same information is already provided, this simply improves sharing among the crew. Wouldn’t be surprised if Singapore Airlines started doing this years ago 🙂
I think Korean Air also does this as I had some recent flights with them and I was personally greeted by a representative once I was seated and I think it was based on my Million Miler stratus with Delta Air Lines.
Again such a sensationalist title essentially with something quite a few other airlines have been doing for a while now! Yawn.