Value Group continues to smooth the path of handling passenger disruption issues, with its new RUBIK application giving an airline centralised control of managing irregular operations (IROP) and enabling passengers to directly book any required hotel, ground transport and meals.
It marks the latest development at Milan-based Value Group, which has been providing IROP management solutions to the industry for more than 20 years and specialises in minimising the impact of travel disruptions for airlines and passengers alike.
Value Group launched its RUBIK application at the start of 2024 . It brings together multiple elements for managing travel disruptions and has been designed to facilitate full service self-handling for passengers.
Specifically, RUBIK provides real-time monitoring of travel disruptions across multiple airports, providing an airline’s headquarters with an overview across the wider network and making it easier to anticipate passenger needs and proactively address potential issues.
By consolidating IROP information on a network level, without taking over the local operation activity, RUBIK gives an airline centralised supervision of travel disruption situations.
A centralised approach to IROP situations offers a number of benefits. For example, collating information from multiple sources facilitates quicker and more informed decision-making by the airline, while helping deliver standardised messaging internally and externally. This ensures passengers receive more consistent communications during travel disruption, reducing potential confusion and frustrations.
It also provides for more effective crisis handling through a unified decision-making process between the airline headquarters and local teams during a large-scale disruption.
As the application is built to operate on Value Group’s OMS platform, this gives it access to the company historic and real-time data meaning it can make instant cost estimates and KPIs to optimise logistics planning and cost control. Again, a centralised approach offers a more streamlined operation and optimises resource allocation and costs.
A Scalable Solution
RUBIK is also scalable, meaning it can adapt quickly to growth or changes in an airline network.
RUBIK can interface with the relevant passenger data for disrupted flights from an airline’s Global Distribution System (GDS), with the relevant, minimal set of data collected via a web-based API in line with European Union GDPR guidelines. This integration enables the automatic preparation of passenger lists, automatic priority and profiling management of passengers.
Value Group also offers the option of the VG Self-Handling App. This empowers passengers to handle their own booking of hotels and transportation during a disruption without incurring any upfront cost, as this is regulated by Value Group’s contract with the airline. This software is fully integrated with RUBIK and OMS, but could also be integrated in the existing airline App or via deep-link according to the airline’s preference.
Value Group developed RUBIK based on requirements from airlines as a modular application, featuring core capabilities covering network supervision, IROP process flow management, an availability map and hard/soft block booking option for rooming, communications and reporting functionality.
Artificial Human Intelligence
While RUBIK illustrates the advanced technology solutions of Value Group, the company marries this with the human touch. Indeed, Value Group coins the term ‘artificial human intelligence’ to sum up the importance of the interaction of both technology and human contact in helping to resolve travel disruption; combining the benefits of technology to give a quick response during IROP with in-person assistance for passengers at the airport.
Value Group, which is majority-owned by leading private equity firm Azimut Libera Impresa SGR, has a presence at 433 airports across six continents and a workforce of 140 people.
