Guest column: Revolutionizing airline catering through data science with gategroup
This is a special feature from PAX International's July 2024 issue, on page 19.
Agustin Buenaño, Vice President Culinary and Customer Experience at gategroup
We believe that culinary is both an art and a science. The eternal art of imagining and creating culinary experiences that delight and satisfy people’s desires. The application of innovation, technology and data to realize incredible experiences under challenging conditions. We marry creativity with cutting-edge innovation and the power of data to create experiences that exceed the expectations of every guest.
In today's competitive airline catering industry, leveraging AI and data science is a crucial element in gategroup’s strategy. By partnering with leading data science companies, we transform vast amounts of social data into actionable insights, identifying untapped opportunities and driving innovative culinary solutions. These collaborations allow us to continuously adapt and enhance our services, ensuring a superior culinary experience for all passengers served by gategroup and introducing these insights as a crucial part of our menu development process.
Leveraging AI and data science is a crucial element in gategroup’s strategy
The journey begins with understanding the preferences of passengers and the landscape of the industry. We conduct in-depth analyses by examining public conversations related to inflight food and beverages, which allows us to stay ahead of trends and cater to the evolving tastes of travellers across all cabins and destinations. Our chefs validate ingredients and meals that are emerging trends predicted to define the landscape tomorrow and are quickly gaining popularity.
Our data-driven approach segments our audiences into distinct categories based on similar behaviours and interests, such as lifestyle choices, travel frequency, booking preferences, cultural interests and prevailing food tastes. By delving into the motivations behind passengers' choices, we uncover preferences that extend beyond aviation to include their food and beverage inclinations. These unique insights enable us to precisely tailor our services, ensuring that we meet the diverse needs of all our clients.
In summary, our data science capabilities play a crucial role in shaping the global inflight catering experience. By leveraging predictive consumer intelligence, we help airlines develop unique culinary identities and enhance passenger satisfaction. This forward-thinking approach ensures that our customers are always prepared to meet the changing demands of the aviation industry, making data science an indispensable asset in our value proposition.
