Wavelink Case Studies

Virgin Blue Pilots Wireless Check-In With Help From Wavelink

Aussie Airline Flyers Save Time and Hassle with Mobile Check-In Service

CHALLENGE

Australia´s new low-fare airline is making a name for itself with its innovative cost-saving approach to customer service. Billed as the fastest growing airline down under, Virgin Blue is reportedly the most successful airline startup in aviation history with a load factor of 78% after just 100 days of operations.

Now, the airline is helping flyers avoid the hassle of long lines at the check-in counter by introducing roaming ticket agents at key airports. Armed with wireless portable handheld terminals and belt-mounted wireless printers, Virgin Blue ticket agents tag bags and print boarding passes for customers arriving at curbside or waiting on line in the air terminal.

The new service, believed to be an industry first, has been rolled out in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to start, and it has already attracted the attention of another high-flying upstart airline in the U.S. - JetBlue. Both airlines, like some of their competitors, had previously tried self-service check-in kiosks with limited success. Now, the new wireless portable networks seem to be just the ticket.

SOLUTION

These two airlines have been searching for better ways to handle high traffic volumes at flight time, but they´ve worried that integrating a new wireless infrastructure with their existing HP Open Skies Reservation systems would cost too much and require extensive software development time.

However, Australian systems integrator, Bar Code Products (BCP), saw a new opportunity. BCP used Wavelink Studio and ActiveBridge software to implement this wireless infrastructure solution on time and under budget. The resulting 802.11b wireless networks use Symbol portable data terminals and wireless access points and Zebra printers.

"We were asked if it was possible to develop these applications. They had been considered before, but dismissed as ´too hard,´" says John Peacock, Managing Director, with BCP. "We immediately considered Wavelink as an ideal option. Wavelink is easy to use and provides a simple way of accessing legacy systems."

Wavelink´s open architecture, server-based development and management platform provides the tools to rapidly "mobilize" legacy host-based applications. With Wavelink software, BCP was able to implement a robust client-server solution with minimal development effort.

Wavelink Studio provides an extensive development library of over 30 major programming languages including Java, Visual Basic, C++, PowerBuilder, and Visual FoxPro. BCP staff used Wavelink Studio and its Visual Basic libraries to optimize the user-interfaces and control the communications to the mobile devices and printers on the Symbol Spectrum24 Wireless Local Area Network. Wavelink ActiveBridge was used as a plug-in to Wavelink Studio to provide access from the Virgin Blue wireless application to data on the HP OpenSkies reservation system residing on a remote mainframe system.

The results are increased customer satisfaction along with additional versatility and flexibility from an airline reservation network that now extends the reach of customer service agents anywhere within a 1.5-kilometer radius of the airport check-in counter.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Virgin Blue sees the new wireless technology as a real competitive advantage in the struggle to increase customer satisfaction while maintaining lower operating costs. They have planned to continue with a rollout of the service to all their airports in Australia.

The Virgin Blue implementation also provides a competitive advantage for BCP of Queensland, Australia. They are currently involved with the rollout of a similar system for JetBlue in the United States, and they see this as an opportunity to extend their business globally to other airlines.

ABOUT BARCODE PRODUCTS

Barcode Products is an Australian-based company specializing in the supply, development and integration of data collection technology. BCP´s expertise lies in being able to provide complete solutions for simple or complex data collection requirements with a range of products that include easy to use barcode printers and software, network systems for shop floor data collection, portable and radio frequency based data management systems for order picking, dispatch and stock-taking. For more information, visit www.barcodeproducts.com.au

ABOUT WAVELINK

Wavelink Corporation is a leading provider of wireless communications software and the developer of a wireless platform that enables enterprises to develop, manage and deploy wireless applications. Since 1992, Wavelink´s innovative software has powered a growing number of Fortune 1,000 companies and is rapidly becoming a standard in wireless network development, deployment and management, with more than 40,000 installations in over 50 countries. Wavelink supports the world´s most popular programming languages and device operating systems, and has extended its expertise from wireless local area networks (WLAN) to the wireless wide area networks (WWAN) space. For more information, please visit www.wavelink.com or call +1-425-823-0111.