Client Overview

Frontier Airlines is a Denver, Colorado based aviation holding company. Founded in 1994, the company through its subsidiaries currently has an extensive coast to coast network. Its passenger and cargo network also includes services to Canada and Mexico.  Frontier’s fleet included Airbus A319, Airbus 318, CRJ 70 and E170, with Q400 awaiting induction.

Business challenges

The existing Cargo Tracking application had design limitations and required to be upgraded for improved functionality. Negotiating and distributing rates, submitting airway bill information, verifying surcharges and making bookings were mostly manual or handled by telephone calls, resulting in higher costs and inefficiencies.

An operational efficiency audit of the cargo division revealed enormous potential for reducing operational costs. A high-level system study suggested that by just enabling the customers to track their shipment during transit, the company could achieve saving to the tune of $950,000 in the very first year. In brief, the key challenges the cargo division had were:

• A performance limited application with low search functionality and user interface
• Inefficient processes that not only raised costs
• Higher instances of lost shipments
• on-demand cargo-tracking/ status feature
• Avoid manual tracking of cargo at each transit by retracing the AWB
• Improve overall customer experience and satisfaction

GSS America solution

Frontier Airlines selected GSS America to implement solutions for enhancing its operational efficiencies. GSS America proposed a comprehensive CW2.0 application to support all aspects of cargo tracking and user management. The application is integrated with printers to generate code-128 barcodes. The application also ensured compatibility with other interfaces like AirClic Harvester.

Methodology

The application integrated all cargo operations and allied vendor services to provide status update of cargo movement. An AWB was to be electronically generated for domestic, international and flex shipments in their exclusive formats, which could be printed. Data corresponding to each AWB is then used for generating and printing respective barcodes. Ramp users track the loading and unloading of shipments at transit points using handle devices. These updates on shipment are imported to the application by vendor services, at regular specified intervals.

Tools used

The technologies used were C#.NET, JavaScript, ASP.NET2.0, SQLServer2005, XML, HTML and ATLAS.  GSS implemented Atlas with the entire application to prevent page refresh. Microsoft enterprise libraries were used for handling exceptions and data access application blocks

Benefits

Strategic

• The company set off on immense immediate savings, exceeding the anticipated $950,000 in the first year
• Realized higher profits on reduced operational costs
• Both shippers and consignees had visibility into the status of their shipments, offering enhanced end-customer experience and satisfaction
• Led to increase in revenues from cargo shipments by 15%

Tactical

• Compatibility to barcode printing, forms based authentication, better exception handling and data access application blocks, ensured secure and reliable functioning which improved the predictability for customers
• The automation of cargo operations resulted in lesser paper work. The higher costs associated with manual processing has been reduced considerably.

Operational

• Customers could trace their shipments anytime during transit, independently.
• The manual method of processing and updating shipment status was reduced by 60% as vendor updates are imported into the application, at specified intervals

• The application provided better user interface at all stages, with enhanced search functionality enhancing user experience