66 | http://www.nomadafricamag.com | ...Celebrating the world’s richest continent | Issue 11
Kenya Airways was established in 1977 after the
East African Community was dissolved and East-African
Airways was disbanded. By 1997, Kenya Airways took delivery of
the first new Boeing 737-300 aircraft for the purpose of domestic
and African regional travel. In 2006, Kenya Airways had won the
‘African Airline of the Year’ Award for the fifth time in seven
years and in 2011 the airline had carried 3 million passengers.more cost effective and less harmful on
the environment. Airports will continue to
become more automated. Airports Com -
pany of South Africa (ACSA) and the gen-
eral African airline industry are in the
process of streamlining self-service check-
in and mobile travel management apps. In
future, devices will allow passengers to
check in their bags from home via a
smartphone, and eTag and eTrack GPS
and Bluetooth systems will be able to
track luggage anywhere in the world.
According to IATA, five specific technolo-
gies will completely transform the aviation
industry in years to come. These include
artificial intelligence (AI), biometric tech-
nology, blockchain, remote sensing tech-
nology, IATA’s New Distribution Capability
(NDC) and ‘One Order’. AI is already being
used in multiple industries, including fi-
nancial institutions, manufacturing and
aviation. 14% of airlines and 9% of airports
are already using bots for customer serv-
ice queries. The future of travel will be
having a 24-hour bot travel assistant that
is able to predict personal preferences and
select a user experience based on histori-
cal data. In future, 3D printing will also fea-
ture as a cost-saving initiative. Studies are
currently underway to use 3D printing for
manufacturing parts such as seat buckles
and brackets, which could significantly re-
duce cost and weight in an aircraft, burn-
ing less fuel and requiring less raw
materials for production.
Biometric technology is already a part of
everyday life and is aimed at processing
passengers rapidly by using iris recogni-
tion, fingerprint or face identification. The
project is part of IATA’s One ID project,
and it matches any of the characteristics
mentioned with passport and flight book-
ing data. Passengers will then only need
to show identification once. African coun-
tries are already using this technology to
collect data for security and border con-
trol.
Scientists are predicting that global warm -ing will cause in-flight turbulence to be-
come more severe in future due to unsta-
ble wind and temperature fluctuations. By
the year 2050, intense turbulence could
increase over Africa alone by 51%. Turbu-
lence is responsible for hundreds of costly
injuries to crew and passengers every
year. The industry is in the process of in-
vestigating laser technology that could
predict turbulence in the flightpath via
light pulses. IATA is also in the process of
creating a knowledge-sharing platform
for pilots and air traffic control to gather
real-time data and weather warnings.
Blockchain is another technological ad-
vancement aimed at streamlining secure
payment processes for bookings and re-
moving unnecessary steps to cut costs.
NDC and One Order is a technology that
will use a modern XML-based internet
language standardised between airline
websites and airline ticket distribution
systems. The systems will be able to per-
sonalise passenger purchases and collect