Transforming Aviation Industry with Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
The article discusses the various use cases of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the aviation industry. RPA is a technology that has enabled businesses to automate their operations, including those in the aviation industry. RPA can be used in various sectors, such as airport management, customer relationship, and air cargo management, to streamline processes such as revenue accounting, invoice generation and processing, report generation, reconciliation, ticket refunds, commission payment calculations, and HR processes.
UiPath is one such RPA solution provider which can be used to automate these processes. The UiPath platform is designed to help organizations automate repetitive and mundane tasks, allowing employees to focus on more strategic and high-value work. UiPath offers a wide range of automation capabilities. UiPath has become a popular choice for organizations looking to adopt RPA, with a customer base that spans industries such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and more.
This article lists some use cases of the Aviation industry which can be automated using RPA.
Revenue accounting
Revenue Accounting is a critical function in the airline industry that involves the accurate and timely recording of all revenue earned by an airline. RPA bots can be trained to log in to different websites and navigate to the right place, trigger any job, and download reports. The bot can process these reports and extract both passenger and cargo revenue and expenditure data. For example, Accelya CRA is a revenue accounting system used by many airlines for revenue accounting purposes. RPA can be used with Accelya CRA to automate various processes involved in revenue accounting, such as batch triggering, revenue audit, cargo accounting, and waiver accounting. Thus, RPA helps in saving time and reducing errors.
Invoice Generation and Processing
Airlines typically collaborate with numerous travel agencies for selling their tickets. However, the invoices generated by these agencies often vary in format, making it challenging to handle a large volume of invoices manually. This manual process also consumes significant time. However, using an RPA bot can streamline this task by processing these invoices quickly. The bot can extract the essential data from the invoice and enter it into an Excel file. It can also be trained to receive, verify, and log invoices. In addition, an RPA bot can create invoices by leveraging invoice templates and the information provided.
Report Generation
RPA bots can log in to a website or an application, navigate to the right place, and extract required data and generate a report. The bot can also log in to the database, process the data and create a report. A use case can be downloading reports from SAP from different departments and processing these reports to create a final report and send it to another department. Reports like the stock report, Cabin dressing inventory management report, Enterprise analytics report, GPA summary report, Par level, etc.
Reconciliation Process
RPA can be used to validate the Reports based on the inputs given or process two reports and validate the third. Use Cases may include ADM ACM Reconciliation, in the Charter Reconciliation process the NEO report from the Flight order system is matched with Charter revenue Account in SAP with the objective to prove the Charter operation Account is Accurate.
Ticket Refunds
If a ticket is cancelled by a customer and raised for a refund, then the airline needs to refund a specific amount based on certain criteria. Here RPA can be used to check the validity of the ticket, check for fraud, and finally approve a refund without human intervention. A use case may be for the tickets which are raised for refund needs authorization from BSPLink in IATA Portal before it is refunded in the SABRE application.
Commission Payment Calculations
RPA is helpful in Commission calculations to different vendors based on the percentage of incentives and exchange currency value, which can be calculated, and invoices can be generated and sent to different vendors. The processes may be like the Preparation and upload of the agency commission journal, Schedule preparation for agency cost of sales, and The Agency Incentive Download Process is to log in to the Agency Incentive portal and download the needed report. The Commission Payment Advice process is to use consolidated CASS, NON–CASS GSA commission reports, and non-sale fee reports to prepare a database that has the data of the countries to which the commission payment needs to be done. The commission fee is calculated in local currencies using the exchange rates from the treasury department. Finally, the invoices are generated for the agencies based on the database using the invoice template.
HR Department
HR processes like monthly payroll, Education Amortisation and balance recovery in the final settlement, Payslip for outstation, Court case payslips, Creating Visa Request, Housing Declaration Requests, Personal Info Change Requests, Claim Employee Benefits, approve settlements, etc can be automated using RPA.
In conclusion, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has proven to be a valuable tool for the aviation industry. By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, RPA enables organizations to save time, reduce costs, and increase accuracy in critical functions such as revenue accounting, invoice generation and processing, report generation, reconciliation, ticket refunds, and commission payment calculations. The implementation of RPA in the aviation industry has resulted in significant improvements in efficiency and productivity, allowing organizations to focus on strategic initiatives and enhancing customer satisfaction. As technology continues to evolve, the role of RPA in the aviation industry is expected to expand, driving further improvements and innovation in the industry.