3.2.2. Diabetic Cardiovascular Diseases

Cardiovascular complications, containing cardiomyopathy, atherosclerosis, coronary ischemia, and vascular disease, are associated with the high morbidity and mortality of diabetes mellitus [77,88], among which cardiomyopathy is responsible for 80% [17]. It was reported that tea could improve cardiovascular complications by decreasing hyperglycemia, adjusting lipid metabolism, activating signaling pathways, down-regulating the inflammatory factors, and so on.

Tea polyphenols could improve myocardial glycolipid energy metabolism and interfere with adiponectin mRNA and protein expression through AMPK activation, which was involved in insulin signaling [89]. Also, tea polyphenols could stimulate the activity of AMPK via the Ca2+/Ca-MKK/AMPK-mediated signaling pathway [90]. Additionally, tea polyphenols could regulate autophagy via mTOR and Akt signaling pathways, which was beneficial for the prevention and treatment of diabetic cardiomyopathy [91–93].

An in vivo study found that green tea could inhibit cardiac dyslipidemia, lipid peroxidation, and protein glycosylation through improving the activities of Ca2+-ATP and Na+/K+-ATP enzymes to regulate the content of Ca2+ and Na+ [94]. Furthermore, EGCG could improve metabolic and cardiovascular pathophysiology by stimulating the production of nitric oxide (NO) from endothelium via phosphatidylinositol 3-hydroxykinase (PI3k)-dependent pathways [95]. Additionally, EGCG could inhibit inflammatory factors such as NF-κB and activator-1, which played an important role in vascular inflammation caused by insulin resistance [96,97]. In addition, it was found that green tea extract could reduce the progression of atherosclerosis by reversing endothelial dysfunction [98]. Also, MMP-9 played an important role in atherosclerosis, and green tea catechins could inhibit the mRNA expression and the activity of MMPs [83,99]. Further, green tea catechins increased plasma total antioxidant activity and prevented diabetic cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction by blocking changes in arterial pressure variability [77]. Moreover, the green tea extract inhibited the accumulation of aortic collagen, reduced the solubility of collagen, and decreased AGEs and collagen cross-linking, finally preventing diabetic cardiomyopathy in streptozotocin diabetic rats [98,100]. It was also reported that green tea flavonoids could alleviate the contraction of aortic strips, and green tea extract could protect against free radical and glucose-mediated protein damage [101].

Both black tea theaflavins and green tea catechins significantly attenuated high glucose-induced block of insulin signaling, reduced lipid accumulation, inhibited fatty acid synthesis, and stimulated fatty acid oxidation by activating the LKB1-AMPK pathway [54,102,103]. Furthermore, insulin deficiency and insulin resistance could induce exaggerated vasoconstriction [104], and black tea polyphenols could improve vasoconstriction through PI3K-Akt pathway and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) phosphorylation [105,106].

White tea catechins could reduce the absorption of cholesterol in the intestines and increase the excretion of cholesterol and total fat in the feces [107]. Further, white tea could control the Krebs cycle by decreasing pyruvate through regulating lactic acid and the lactate dehydrogenase levels in the heart at the prediabetic state, thereby preventing diabetic cardiovascular disease [108–110]. In addition, white tea could regulate cardiac metabolic disorders by up-regulating the expression of cardiac GLUT1 and GLUT3 mRNA [87]. Quercetin, an important flavonoid found in write tea, could prevent diabetic vascular complications in both insulin deficiency and resistance by inhibiting inflammatory pathways, especially the NF-κB signaling [104].

Yellow tea "Junshan Yinzhen" could improve insulin resistance and the disorders of glucose and lipid metabolism in diabetic rats, which may be related to the high content of polyphenols, polysaccharides, and alkaloids in yellow tea [111]. Besides, yellow tea could control glucose e ffectively by maintaining normal expression of thioredoxin interacting protein, which played an important role in the synthesis and release of glucose in the liver [112].

Oolong tea contained less catechins than green tea, but more catechins than black tea [113]. Pu-erh tea extract could inhibit inflammation of visceral adipose tissue by down-regulating the inflammatory factors and inducing the expression of G-protein coupled receptor (Gpr120) [114].

Therefore, tea and its bioactive components, can be good protectors for cardiovascular complications of diabetes.


Author details

Abdenacer Berradja MTM Department, K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

\*Address all correspondence to<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Electrochemical Techniques for Corrosion and Tribocorrosion Monitoring: Methods… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86743


**4. Discussion**

Our analysis of micro and community-level stakeholder perceptions towards drowning interventions revealed opportunities for the implementation of drowning reduction programs in the Sundarbans.

The findings suggested that all recommended interventions must be introduced together in a comprehensive program for maximum e ffectiveness. According to the participants, barrier-based interventions were considered appropriate for 1–2-year-old children, childcare for 3–5-year-old children, and swim and rescue training for children over the age of 6 years. Participants were largely homogenous

in this view, given cultural norms around childrearing and care. In addition, first responder training was perceived as important to encourage appropriate post-drowning actions. The age-appropriateness identified by participants for each intervention was in line with WHO implementation guidelines [24].

While the core components of these interventions would remain the same, such as ensuring that childcare spaces are secure and are provided during at-risk hours, the delivery processes of a comprehensive program should be adapted to the Sundarbans context. These changeable program characteristics include the nature of the community delivery agents, the capacity and capability of available workforce, availability of infrastructure and resources, partnership opportunities, methods of communication, and cultural adaptations such as changes to language and messaging [25,26]. The design and development of the comprehensive drowning program should involve community groups and stakeholders to ensure sustainability.

In this study, some specific intervention adaptations were identified as appropriate to the Sundarbans. An essential finding for the barrier-based intervention was that the preferred type of barrier varied by household. Hence, a drowning program may seek to deliver customised barriers for each household. Participants identified that childcare services should have an adequate child to caretaker ratio to ensure child security and provide pick up and drop o ff services to encourage attendance. These provisions to ensure child safety and support for attendance were also identified in international guidelines on childcare provision [27,28]. Participants were similarly concerned with safety for swim and rescue training services.

Participants also noted the need for complementary awareness activities, such as to dispel improper beliefs around e ffective child rescue techniques.  Changing problematic norms and beliefs is an important step in behaviour change, and Sundarbans communities must be informed that such actions do not save children [30–33]. However, awareness itself is not su fficient to change behaviour, and must be accompanied with the removal of obstacles to change and capacity building [31,34]. Hence, awareness and first responder training in the Sundarbans may also need to target local 'quack' doctors who have some authority over community responses to drowning and may override individuals advocating for the administration of proper first aid. Ensuring that these local doctors themselves promote and administer appropriate first response may be critical for sustainable impact.

The sustainability of programs improves when they leverage existing government structures [9]. Our findings suggest that the ICDS, ASHA and SHG programs may provide platforms through which a drowning reduction program may be promoted and implemented. ASHA workers may play a promotive and monitoring role for the program and may also be involved in first responder training. However, many ASHA workers are overburdened with their duties and their drowning program role may be more sustainable if it is incorporated into their existing activities, such as providing barrier monitoring support as part of their regular household visits [35]. SHG members also showed willingness to be involved with drowning reduction activities and provided a network through which program activities can be advertised. Members were also available to be recruited for program delivery. ASHA worker and SHG members' performance may also vary depending on the frequency of visits from government supervisors, so independent program monitoring may be required [36].

Concerns were raised around the utilisation of Anganwadi centres for childcare services. The ICDS program su ffered from unsafe venues, lack of Anganwadi training and poor sanitary conditions. The local government also had limited authority over the changing operations of centres to include more hours of childcare, requiring permissions from state-level bureaucrats, which may take time given decision makers are risk-averse to changes. NGO participants suggested that a parallel program was more feasible. The long-term goal of health program design, implementation and scale up is often the uptake of these programs by government, as this improves the likelihood of sustained funding and delivery [14,37]. A parallel program may be less likely to be picked up by the government as the ICDS program already provides childcare services as per policy. In addition, optimising existing Anganwadi

centres may require fewer resources than opening new centres. Community and local-government engagement activities should seek to decide on which model has long-term feasibility: optimising Anganwadi centres or running a parallel program.

Key facilitating factors that will enable implementation were identified by participants. Consistent community engagement and buy in of local leaders were essential. This is well founded in other LMIC contexts [38]. However, participants also noted that local government was a ffected by nepotistic practices that may a ffect program quality. In West Bengal, a study found that local government members were allocating agricultural resources to communities with more power, land and connections [39]. Hence, strict protocols and oversight may be required to ensure the equitable distribution of program resources.

Community participants advocated for local individuals to be trained as childcare and swim training providers. Implementation analyses have shown that local community-based workers best operate when they have access to resources, training and monitoring. Additionally, the building of soft skills, such as communication and leadership, is vital [40]. Community worker engagement and management should be carefully defined and involve incentive structures appropriate to the context and matching community expectations [41–43].

Participants also noted that community-level committees are e ffective mechanisms through which residents can own programs and monitor implementation. These committees can also be engaged in advocacy and engagement activities and be instrumental in ensuring that implementation responds to community needs [26]. Increased community ownership of health programs may lead to better adaptation to the context and a greater likelihood of sustainability and acceptability [12,44]. However, the underlying assumption of all participants was that an NGO with expertise in child programs, such as CINI, would take primary lead in implementing and supporting community-level committees and program delivery. CINI has over 46 years of experience in delivering child programs in rural regions of West Bengal and is a suitable lead agency.

The development of the intervention may also consider the incorporation of other ideas. Although there is limited evidence on the e ffectiveness (and on the ethics) of tying children indoors to the ends of rope, there is some evidence that walking school bus programs can prevent injury in children [45]. While these have previously been used to reduce road tra ffic injuries, in the context of the Sundarbans, this may help reduce drowning events during commutes to school [46]. However, this intervention does not target the age group with the largest burden—1–4-year-old children.

To ensure the community ownership and development of an acceptable and feasible program, the next step of program design should involve community participatory approaches [10,47]. The present study found a range of issues that may a ffect program delivery, such as unpredictable geography, poor connectivity, religion and the caste of program providers, remoteness, poverty, poor government program monitoring structures, requirement for appropriate incentives, recruitment challenges and the availability of appropriate venues. Communities are the best informants for how context-specific issues can be addressed and managed [48]. Participatory approaches will also improve community buy-in and redistribute the power of change into the community's hands [49]. The range of stakeholders as identified in the stakeholder analysis and should be appropriately engaged, starting with Gram Panchayat and block-level o fficials and moving to individual community leaders and members. No lifesaving organisations were identified which conduct drowning prevention activities, which was unsurprising as lifesaving organisations have had limited contribution to drowning prevention capacity development and advocacy in remote regions of India.

### *Limitations of This Study*

Due to ethical constraints, we were not able to gather information on participants' caste or religion. It is unclear if the perspectives found are representative across a range of religious groups. In addition, some government program workers were recruited with assistance from Gram Panchayats. These may have been the more active and well performing workers and may not be fully representative of typical programs. This was particularly mitigated by ensuring at least one poor performing worker of each type was purposively recruited.


Low fuel rates, relatively high growth in demand for air travel (7–8% versus a 20-year average of 5.5%), growing seat load factors and the adoption of more and more ancillary services for sale helped to achieve a positive performance again for airlines in the last years. In some regions such as the US the intensive consolidation has also helped to increase average fares and thus total revenue. International Air Traffic Association (IATA) announced in June 2018 that it expects airlines to achieve a collective net profit of \$33.8 billion, with a net margin of 4.1% in 2018 [2]. This result is driven to a large extent by North American airlines, followed by Asia-Pacific and European ones.

However, this is a downward revision from the previous forecast and compares to US\$38 billion in 2017, mainly driven by increase in cost of fuel, labour and interest rates.

According to IATA [2], airfares keep going down. The 2018 average return airfare (before surcharges and tax) is expected to be US\$380 (2018 dollars), which is 59% below 1998 levels after adjusting for inflation. Average air freight rates for 2018 are expected to be US\$1.80/kg, which is 63% below 1998 levels.

An analysis of the Forbes Global 2000 list [3] gives some interesting insights in terms of financial perspective, particularly market capitalisation. Looking at the top 10, there is not a single airline or airport part of it. Yet for the first time since 2015, China and the US split the top 10 evenly this year. On the inaugural list in 2003, there were just 43 companies from the Greater Chinese Area. Meanwhile, Japan, the United Kingdom and South Korea also broke into the top five countries with the most companies.

In comparison to C-trip (which also owns Skyscanner) and Expedia, most airlines market capitalisation is in the best case close or much lower. In comparison to tech companies the gap is simply enormous. This is illustrated clearly in **Figure 1**. The one airline which does stand out is Delta, which is with US\$37.1 billion in a much better position to the other airlines, with the next best one being American Airlines followed by IAG. Delta's CEO Ed Bastian [4] has realised the role of technology as a competitive advantage-next to the people in the airline- and invests heavily. When adding airports to the list, it is interesting that Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea (AENA) seems to come close to Amadeus' market capitalisation, while all the others are significantly lower.

 If you compare airline value with some of its IT providers, then you realise that Amadeus as a key IT provider to airlines is worth more in terms of market capitalisation than the airlines Lufthansa, IAG/British Airways, Air France-KLM and SAS

#### **Figure 1.**

*Market capitalisation (US\$ billion), extract 1—market capitalisation aviation and travel companies versus travel tech and technology companies overall. Data from Forbes Global 2000 [3], illustration by the author.*

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

**Figure 2.**  *Market capitalisation (US\$ billion), extract 2—Amadeus versus its founding airlines.*

that originally founded it 30 years ago (**Figure 2**). In fact, decades ago airlines had been very innovative and developed their own IT to be able to handle reservations and the underlying operational requirements. American Airlines had founded Sabre, Delta had founded Worldspan, Lufthansa had founded Lufthansa Systems. Many more airlines globally had developed their own IT systems in the 1950s and 1960s predominantly.

 Sabre, the equivalent provider of airline solutions to Amadeus that was founded by American Airlines in 1960 is estimated to have a market capitalisation between US\$7 and US\$8 billion. This compares to an estimated US\$19.9 billion for American Airlines [3], thus in this case the IT provider representing less than half of the value than the airline which had founded it.

For the complete picture it should be mentioned that the big traditional airline solutions providers Amadeus, Sabre and Travelsky have also a vested interest in the travel agency market by providing the Global Distribution System (GDS). They incentivise travel agencies to use their systems while they charge airlines for those distribution services [5].

#### **2.2 Airline technology and processes**

 Given low profit margins and focus on operational issues and safety first, airlines in most cases simply have not had the money to invest in state of the art technology. But it is also—if not even more—the lack of priority of technology for top management. Most aviation leadership teams have been set up with more traditional management, where digital and also customer centricity had been underestimated and misrepresented. It takes a long time to change this mindset even when bringing in additional individual talent to adjust.

Airlines are used to iterative and process thinking, to a great degree influenced by legal frameworks to ensure a safe operation, but also by the decade old systems being in place and very much an inward looking culture. Top management had not realised the importance of digital. Ecommerce was evolving in a separate department with some specialists but had not really become part of the overall strategy until recently. The mindset of the workforce is significantly influenced by this process thinking approach, traditional leadership and the complexity and barriers of the current systems landscape.

Airline and airport staff often do not know why they do things. They just do it because it has always been done that way. And because their environment does not encourage questions. This leads to a number of pain points which get completely absurd in the current environment. Let me just give a few obvious questions as examples:

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

This list of pain points is just an extract. The pain points cover all parts of the customer journey, from trip planning to booking, experiencing and sharing. They are a result of continuing with processes and systems which had been created for a different environment, where internet did not exist and in which the technological possibilities were more limited.

The traditional systems landscape is extremely fragmented and complex, and many of the new elements such as the online channel, optional services for sale, mobile, self service for customers and staff, reporting, customer notifications had to be added on top of it as workarounds (**Figure 3**). And the traditional processes around this are still to a great degree manual and broken, and based on specialist

#### **Figure 3.**

*Typical airline IT architecture. Abbreviations used: GDS global distribution system, FQTV fare quote system, schedule distribution, fare distribution, RES reservations, Sched scheduling, Reacc. Reaccommodation, Inv. inventory, Anc's ancillary services, Pay't payment, W&B Weight and balance, Rev.Mgmt. Revenue management, RevInt'y revenue integrity, Rev. Acc'g revenue accounting, Flt ops flight operations, HR human resources, API application programming Interface, AI artificial intelligence, ML machine learning, IOT internet of things, AR/VR stand for augmented reality and virtual reality.*

silos instead of a holistic approach. They were focused on transactions and had not put the customer in the centre nor did they target a seamless experience or have foreseen the commercial and competitive pressures that we encounter today [6].

 There were a number of computer failures and outages in recent years and months, from Delta, Southwest Airlines, United to British Airways [7]. Part of the underlying reason are complexity both of systems and processes, with a large degree of legacy technology, and subsequent problems to find the error. The impact is even higher as manual or alternative processes are often not in case, leading to huge disruption for customers and the airline as a result. The underlying principles and processes had been standardised via IATA initiatives, in order to make cooperation between airlines and airports and travel globally easier. IATA in recent years took a number of initiatives to adjust them to better fit with the current age. Yet it is difficult to turn around a tanker, and these are small steps in comparison to what we would expect as normal in the current digital environment.

Technology spend by airlines and airports are estimated to have reached nearly US\$33 billion in 2017 [8]. This is almost exactly the total market capitalisation of Amadeus IT Systems alone. According to reference [8], top of the agenda for both airports and airlines are cyber security, cloud services and passenger self-service. Airlines' expenditure as a percentage of revenue was about 3.3% in 2017. For airports, the figure was about 5% for this year or US\$8.43 billion. For 2018, it is expected that at least the same levels are being maintained, if not increased. These investment figures do not seem huge given the digital agenda but rather look like maintaining status quo. While new technology makes it possible to take a smarter approach with much less money than aviation is used to, it first requires the investment in the change. Hidden in the average figures there are airlines such as Delta and Ryanair, which are investing heavily, while a large part just work on maintaining status quo and do the most urgent adjustments. Given the high amount of investment over time and the amount of people employed coupled with resistance to change, there are lots of economic interests by providers and some other stakeholders to maintain the status quo as long as possible. In a time when the only thing which is clear about the future is that flexibility is required, providers are still trying to achieve 10 or 15 years contracts and to even restrict some commercial flexibility with regard to distribution policies. There are first signs that some big airlines do not accept this anymore, with a particular breakthrough by Lufthansa and their introduction of a distribution fee (see also Section 3.3) (**Figures 1–4**).

#### **3. What is being done: a selection of initiatives**

We had some vivid discussions and lots of examples of current activities during our last annual global think tank "think future - Hamburg Aviation Conference", bringing together top leaders, innovators and thought leaders from airlines, airports, rail, hospitality, other travel stakeholders, innovative travel tech and universities to discuss solutions how to succeed in the current dynamic environment. The live stream for this year's event can be watched on YouTube [6]. We particularly recommend the opening panel discussion between top leaders from airports, airlines and tech providers and the panel about the future for airports as additional insight to the following sections, directly from aviation thought leaders.

I think the good news is that in the meantime even the most traditional airlines' and airports' boards and executive teams have realised that change is not a choice anymore. But they struggle with the how, and what to focus on. I have summarised a few activities by airlines and airports and selective other travel stakeholders, which I think give a good impression in terms of what initiatives are prioritised out there at the moment.

#### **3.1 Structural technology changes**

 Delta Airlines- having declared technology as a key focus has brought inhouse two key technology platforms, its reservations and passenger services system and its flight operations systems. These are old systems they have already been using, so there was no migration required. They bought the rights from their provider Travelport. Delta had owned Worldspan—which then became part of Travelport—back in the early days of the airline. By controlling these systems Delta hopes to not only be able to act faster but also to be able to develop one view on the customer. Virgin announced in August 2018 that they will launch a new loyalty scheme with Delta in an attempt to offer a joint scheme for their customers [9].

A few low cost airlines developed their own distribution and passenger services systems (PSS) to be able to achieve best possible flexibility, Easy Jet and Jet2 in the UK being key examples.

 Some airlines have decided to choose one of the more recent players in the area of underlying reservations and operations systems—to note that "recent" is relative to the majority of the systems in use today, it still means systems which were founded more than 20 years ago—such as Radixx (founded 1993), Bravo Passenger Solutions (founded 1993) and the most recent one IBS Software Services (founded 1997). ITA software, which had started to develop a completely new Passenger Services System (PSS), was bought by Google for US\$ 700 million in 2010 as a vehicle for Google to further develop their travel capabilities. Since then, Google developed many features including Google flight searcher, directly linking to the relative airlines.

A number of older airlines which still own their own PSS systems—for example Aer Lingus, Iberia and Air New Zealand—are evaluating change to an external provider. The fact that this has not happened is a good example that some of them do not think that just moving to one of the existing external provider swill solve their issues. The IAG group is an illustrative for this: British Airways uses Amadeus, but Aer Lingus and Iberia both still own their own internal system.

A number of airlines have also started to think about what some of the more modular systems and add on processes such as revenue management and network planning as well as group management and operations planning of the future should ideally look like given the changed environment.

#### **3.2 Customer experience improvements and revenue increases**

 Customer self service activities have been a priority for a couple of years. It is now increasingly extended to other areas such as self connecting and additional servicing via chatbots. All types of airlines started to offer additional optional services, and also charge for them, particularly for seats and luggage and other ancillary services. Yet often this has been more of a panic activity to recover poor revenue results, and the experience is often not completely thought through, with failures in terms of luggage and seat delivery by the traditional airlines in particular as they own a diversity of aircraft types. The bundling of services is an attempt to facilitate the sales process, often determined by technology restrictions as well.

Latest attempts focus on data analysis and one view of the customer in order to be able to sell more personalised products and services. In addition, beyond the predeparture and inflight services there is more focus on the airport and destination experience. The following selection is a result of our ongoing research.

 Delta tackled the luggage delivery issues in 2016 and invested US\$50 million in technology so that travellers will be able to track their luggage via an app, from the moment they check their bags to the minute the bags arrive at their destination. For 2018, they focus on re-organising all their customer related data to achieve one view of the customer [10].

 JetBlue has invested in Gladly through its venture arm, JetBlue Technology Ventures. Gladly is the maker of a customer service platform for various companies, including airlines, helping to achieve a customer centric service with one view of the customer.

Ryanair has started a project declared to become the Amazon of the air, as part of their "always getting better campaign". As part of this initiative they have created a customer login—which has been in place with Easy Jet and other airlines for many years already—and keep adding optional service offerings related to travel [11].

 IATA has initiated a number of projects to support the airline industry—particularly New Distribution Capability (NDC) and One Order to achieve a better view on the customer and enable sales of ancillary products regardless of which distribution channel is used.

KLM focuses on social media as a way to enhance customer service, but even as a sales channel. This initiative came about during the ash cloud, when they realised the difficulties of communicating with their customers via the limited contact centre channels, as a result of which many customers approached them via social media. They are strong with their social media proposition both in Europe but also in their key regions, adapting to local preferences such as we chat in Asia. However, they also realised that the actual operational delivery is lacking behind and announced recently that they have just launched a project and released significant budget to focus on this [12].

Lufthansa and United Airlines recently declared the development of a new digital services platform (DSP) [13] that will further align the Star Alliance carriers. So far, the travel experience for customers is still fragmented, in particular in terms of additional services such as seat reservation and luggage bookings. For example, they launched a seat selection feature in June 2018 which allows a United Airlines customer to select a seat on Singapore Airlines flights booked via united.com or the United App. It means that a customer can now select a complimentary seat for the entire journey at time of registration regardless of which Star Alliance carrier is involved. At the moment this is just possible at check in.

Airlines have started to introduce digital concierge services by using multilingual chatbot technology. Finnair and Sun Express are just a few of the airlines realising this as a way forward for better customer service around the clock and increased efficiency. It focuses so far mainly on information related to bookings, but booking services are in the making as well as adding voice. But it requires a process alignment first in order to add real value.

 Seat resale and upgrade offering products that airlines such as LATAM have started to introduce are more examples how airlines can solve some operational problems due to overbooking and improve the customer experience as well as gain additional revenues.

Moscow Domodedovo airport turned itself into a shopping mall, thus attracting additional visitors and revenues. Many airports had traditionally only focused on the b2b customers. But in the meantime they have realised that they

#### *Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

 do need to get better customer insight and to keep up with customer expectations. Airports such as Copenhagen, Heathrow and Dublin have introduced customer programs, in an attempt to allow for sales of additional services, customer insight and direct communication with the customer. Many airports have introduced services such as fast track and airport parking for sale online or via an app. Geneva Airport and most UK and Italian airports are examples. Also pre-order and pick up at arrival of duty free products has become a common feature. Yet it is still difficult to find exactly the retail offering at the airport ahead of your trip. But more recently this is being extended to include all the retailers at the airport, and even in town, with pick up at the airport, via an online sales offering for customers. The German company AOE have started to offer these services via their digital platform at Auckland and Frankfurt. Heathrow Airport have just announced that they will join.

 Grab is an innovative company which allows to pre-order food at the airport and grab it on your way to the gate [14]. Their solution is already integrated in a number of airport apps or websites, for example London Gatwick and Heathrow Airport adopted this offering. As airport food and beverage offering have improved significantly this could become a solution to the poor quality yet high cost for the airline of offering food during flights. American Airlines and a couple of other airlines have already decided to include this offer in their customer proposition. Airlines just need to have the open mind to test this as a complete solution for food on board. Hamburg Airport has just introduced a test for preorder and delivery of breakfast at the gate, thus saving valuable time in the morning for their customers.

Amsterdam Airport and Hamburg Airport tested in 2018 improvements for the customer experience through the PASSME [15] project, which uses technology and some airport design elements to reduce the unwanted travel time and helping to spend their time according to their preferences. Tampa airport introduced a program to get more customer insight and build an action plan for higher customer satisfaction, making use of technology to support the process. Incheon/Seoul Airport have extremely efficient biometric identification at security control, which speaks to the customers in the language of their passport.

 Other travel stakeholders have also done an enormous amount of customer experience improvements. Transport for London created a unified API to allow a more seamless travel experience for customers [16]. The German rail operator Deutsche Bahn improved their customers' experience by turning the DB navigator into a travel concierge, allowing clients' time to be spent effectively and according to their priorities instead of wasting it with travel planning [17].

 Expedia have adapted a completely agile approach in terms of testing which websites and costumer propositions work best. They also experiment with Voice by developing a number of solutions for Alexa by Amazon [18].

Kayak and Expedia have all started using chatbots that can learn what consumers like and deliver appropriate suggestions for travel products to buy. American Express just bought Mezi, which is a personalised travel assistant based on AI supporting business travel agencies to offer multiple services for their customers, including "please just buy the same flowers as every week".

#### **3.3 Efficiency increases**

Low cost or hybrid carriers such has Virgin Express and later Brussels Airlines had already worked with surcharges for more expensive channels more than 10 years ago. These were relatively small carriers in the global context and therefore did not create much awareness or subsequent change.

In 2015, Lufthansa announced a 16-euro surcharge [19] on each booking made through global distribution systems (GDSs) like Amadeus and Sabre. Other carriers such as British Airways and Air France followed. They want customers to book directly through their websites to be able to get a better customer understanding, control their experience, offer ancillary services for sale and introduce more flexible pricing as well as ad hoc offers at the airport as for example lounge access. And they aim to control the high direct and indirect cost created through GDS bookings.

 Airlines and airports are increasing the focus on self service. This leads to the increased availability and push of self service luggage check in, as Air New Zealand and Lufthansa have had in place at their home airports for a couple of years. Self connecting services to simplify connecting traffic and enable connections with low cost carriers have started to take ground since Easy Jet announced cooperation with long haul carries such has Norwegian and West Jet [20], and Air Asia introduced a special product for this.

 In Japan airports are testing robots to carry heavy luggage and to clean airport premises. Munich Airport in cooperation with Lufthansa is also running a pilot to test Pepper, the humanoid robot to answer customer questions at the airport [21]. Fraport introduced the "Smart Data Lab", in an attempt to gain useful knowledge and insights and be able to take action from the data in the organisation.

#### **3.4 Organisation design to incorporate digital, retail and innovation**

Some changes in terms of realising the importance of digital and innovation have become visible in the organisational setup, both in terms of new functions and an increased presence in the top leadership. Titles such as Customer Experience Director, Digital Transformation Officers [22], Digital Officers and Innovation Officers or Directors have become quite common. Dependent on the stage of the organisation, digital is often still seen as an add-on, which becomes visible in titles such as "digital customer experience" and / or separate functions for ancillary services and loyalty instead of taking a holistic approach. "Retail" has become part of the nomenclature in organisations in some airlines and is already very common in airport organisations. Some organisations, in an attempt to stress the customer focus, have also renamed operational areas, for example "airport customer delivery" instead of "ground handling".

However, the main base of the organisation is still very similar to what it used to be, even though the functions and activities should change as they are not really aligned anymore with the current world. Revenue Management & Pricing for example is becoming increasingly mingled with digital channel pricing and sales, ancillaries and loyalty services overlap, digital channel experience and customer experience overall overlap and so on.

 Throughout my career I have noticed that aviation companies often prefer reorganisation instead of tackling the key problems of revising processes to be fit for the future, assigning and building the right talent and departments working in silos.

#### **3.5 The rise of innovation labs**

 Both airports and airlines have started to take initiatives to foster innovation via innovation labs.

To name a few real life examples from the airline world:

• Easy Jet puts disruptive thinking at the heart of its digital strategy and invested in Founders Factory [23].

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

But also airports are taking attempts to innovate and support digital transformation. There is a lot of potential through digitisation to speed up and increase efficiency for processes and to develop new experiences:

Made by many, a digital innovative agency in London has done research on innovation labs, with a broad collection of best practice knowledge ([24], see also **Figure 4**).

They look at four main experiments related to innovation labs: the impact of proper design, the impact of actual competition, the impact of hard targets and the impact of tranquillity. The report reveals plenty of valuable insights and data, about where the blockers to innovation are, what innovation lab talent looks like (and how to manage it), how to integrate with the sponsor organisation, and why innovation labs are to business what science-fiction is to literature. Above all, and perhaps most valuably, made by many defined the key reasons why innovation labs fail, and what critical success factors are. **Figure 4** is the summary of the key learnings from the report.

#### **Figure 4.**

*Made by many, Kevin Braddock: Innovation labs—best practice, main conclusions; madebymany.com*

IATA have started to support aviation by running hackathons to develop innovative solutions based on the IATA standards such as New Distribution Capability (NDC). These hackathons help to show what can be done to achieve the culture change so much needed in the industry. Unfortunately airlines are not yet making enough use of these possibilities.

#### **3.6 Innovative things in the making: newcomers, innovating and disrupting**

 New technology and fresh thinking can help significantly to challenge and improve the current way of working, current profitability models, customer and staff experience, operational and commercial areas. It would be beyond the scope of this chapter to go further into details, but just showing some of the revolutionary developments in the market gives an idea of the possibilities.

A number of solutions help to overcome the silos within organisations and also foster more open thinking with external partners. In particular airports and airlines have missed a lot of opportunities because of building frontiers around themselves and not cooperating closely.

We outline a number of innovations from travel tech start ups and enabling technologies that reflect new thinking—not only new technology for old ways of doing things.

#### *3.6.1 Augmenting customer experience and making travel planning easier*

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

#### *3.6.2 Faster, more efficient, more revenue*

### *3.6.3 Safer and/or more sustainable and eco-friendly*

### *3.6.4 Substitutes on the horizon for current aviation models and processes*

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

#### **4. What still needs to be done for the industry to survive**

As seen just with the selection in Section 3 there are a number of activities ongoing in aviation to adjust to the digital age. Are they really the right things? Are they enough?

 From an external view a lot of these activities seem to be little things just to get to the "normal" standard of today, and it is hard to understand why they take so much effort. And real structural issues seem to be missing. If your house is dump, just adding some high quality paint on top of the dump walls will not help. If you drive a vintage car, you will not normally use it to drive on the motorway, unless there is an emergency and you know you will be driving far too slow.

Digital innovation by Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Samsung, Alibaba and other tech players but even other travel players such as online travel agents and meta search companies Expedia, Skyscanner/Ctrip and various new start ups has been out pacing the rate of change in aviation for several years, and the speed is accelerating, putting airlines and airports at a disadvantage to other industries and even to other travel stakeholders. The Forbes 2000 [3] list examples from Section 2 and the profitability and market capitalisation figures are a clear result of this (**Figure 1**).

 Potential substitutes as described in Section 3.6.4 could become a real threat or simply a driver for faster and more drastic change. Coming back to the house example, it is as if avoiding to go to the basement because you know that it is full of water and old wiring and fragile walls, but you restore your house above and ignore this, hoping you will be able to continue as long as possible.

More drastic change is needed than copying current business models such as ancillary revenues or putting more focus on the customer and adding technology workarounds to make this happen. But only a few airlines and airports are really serious about it, starting to go down into the basement.

 Sir Tim Clark, Emirates Airline president expressed a warning recently in an interview with Business Insider. "Guys, there's a storm coming, and if you don't get on it and deal with it, you will perish," Clark said in a recent interview with Business Insider. "The company of the 2050s will bear no resemblance to the company of 2018."

 "It's not a question about using advanced technology to increase the way you do your business, like ancillary revenue streams, because that's a given," Clark said emphatically. "It's not a question of not knocking your companies down internally and rebuilding them on digital platforms. That's a given for us. It's not the case for a lot [of other airlines]." [27] Tim Clark made a major change by hiring a high calibre Chief Digital Innovation and Transformation Officer into his team end of 2016.

 I believe there are 4 key areas which need to be tackled more seriously to really create a sustainable future for aviation. The model with the 4 Bs that we created is not iterative or a once off thing to do, but is meant to be re-applied on an ongoing basis, referring back and forth between the different stages and continuously evolving (**Figure 5**).

#### **4.1 Big vision**

The activities that airlines and airports currently perform are in most cases not part of a holistic strategy. They do add certain capabilities, without questioning enough the current processes and set up. If you see the tremendous amount of change happening outside of the industry, it is certain that consumer expectations will increase even more significantly.

**Figure 5.**  *The 4 Bs model, XXL Solutions.*

Digitisation and technology based on digital platforms are a must, not even part of any vision any more.

 A big and bold vision, starting with "greenfield" thinking and how you would set up an airline/airport without considering current processes. Only subsequently you would decide which of the current processes to eliminate completely, which ones to improve, which factors to build on and enhance in order to get closer to your vision.

Some airlines such as Ryanair have claimed they want to become the Amazon of the air. But Amazon has been continuously re-inventing itself, and is again doing so now with their Amazon Go stores, moving forward into the food supply chain and the internet of things (IOT) with Amazon Echo.

 For airlines, their retailing ambitions so far are mainly based on adding ancillary services and optimising revenue and using more data analysis. And it seems each one is just following the others. Yet decade old technology and manual processes in distribution, revenue management and even operational areas will not provide the flexibility anymore to be ready to adapt. Unfortunately there is not the one technology solution out there to choose from, which delivers all the possibilities and flexibility needed today. But there are all the technological opportunities to implement a vision, without the complexities and large investments needed in the past.

#### **4.2 Behaviour and mindset**

A complete makeover is needed—including sorting out the basement of the house, or building a completely new house.

 To develop the big vision and the subsequent makeover strategy requires above all the right leadership and mindset. And a lot of energy and care. When Ryanair re-invented the way of doing business in the 1990s their biggest risk was to have to close down. They questioned everything and used the opportunities of technology. When Willie Walsh turned ailing Aer Lingus into a low cost carrier at the beginning of this century he put very bold targets in order to achieve change and the thinking of what is needed to get there, even though it seemed far away and impossible at the time. West Jet as one of the global carriers with double digit profit margins for years as a very charismatic leader at the helm.

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

#### **Figure 6.**

*XXL solutions, what aviation can learn from technology companies.*

 The big opportunity is that technology today allows to do everything we want to—it just requires a smart approach and a big vision to get there, which in turn requires the right behaviour and mindset.

If you look at how successful technology companies are, it helps to step back and think a bit about how they work and what aviation can learn from this. In **Figure 6**, we have pointed out some of the main relevant differences between the two types of businesses. Even though they are not always completely evolved, the tendencies in terms of behaviour are very relevant.

We believe that a change of behaviour and mindset is crucial for airlines and airports to achieve any change. The current prevailing iterative and process oriented style is counter productive for the dynamic and agile digital environment. Developing an agile approach, collaboration and using best talent related to a project rather than the one who should be there according to hierarchical thinking is a key element of success for tech companies but not yet for aviation. Trust and personal responsibility are at the heart of this behaviour.

The following elements can help to create this behaviour:

Obviously, being close to customers and understanding their mindset is one of the keys to ensure the right behaviour. If customer satisfaction and feedback become part of the board meeting agenda and the executive team meetings, and technology—which is already available—is used to analyse it and immediately direct it to the right people to take action, then this already key to realise current and future needs to satisfy customers. Tesco, the UK retailer, have also created household panels and feedback opportunities at specific touch points to really get a 360 degree of customers and realise trends early.

#### **4.3 Branding and selling**

 Branding and selling is meant to be both for internal and external purposes to drive change and help staff to engage and fully understand what their role is, and to retain existing customers and create awareness for new ones. It is what companies often forget; they start building a new house first and create fears as staff see the preparatory works. Ryanair's "always getting better" campaign and the vision to become Amazon of the air is a good example of initiating a major change process to reinvent themselves and establish a new market positioning.

Their fast activities and visible results are the "moments of truth" and significantly help to make people belief in the change.

Change is always linked to fears, in particular in this fast changing environment. Fears of losing their jobs because of functional changes or introduction of AI should be foreseen and rather thought about ahead. Addressing those

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

fears, defining where human intervention can add value and start foreseeing these changes can make a significant difference. If staff are taken seriously and get engaged they can play a key role to turn around the company and establish new value—and revenue—adding functions while digitisation and optimising others.

I also believe that leadership should put themselves more often into the shoes of staff in addition to customers to be able to best understand the sentiment and act accordingly.

#### **4.4 Building**

 The aviation industry has typically been extremely process oriented and risk averse, with big governance structures, also when it comes to running projects. A focus on results and agile behaviour is another thing which aviation can learn from tech companies in terms of how to run projects. Coupled with supporting new ideas and taking bold risks as part of the eco system, but abandoning when realising that it will not work out as predicted is crucial.

 Methodologies such as design thinking [28] and Kanban help to design and run projects and achieve fast solutions in agile environments versus discussions without decisions over long periods of time and cumbersome governance structures for processes taking away empowerment of people. They can also help to ensure to draft processes which take account of future needs and allow flexibility rather than just reproducing similar approaches to today with new technology.

It is important that this approach is being understood and clearly becoming alive. It also involves taking some risks and creating a culture of trial and failure.

There are solutions in the market now which help to overcome some of the shortcomings of the old technology. If those solutions are adopted in a modular way, then gradually the unnecessary elements of the old systems can be phased out, and ultimately a truly state of the art proposition be in place, with well managed risk.

At the moment those innovative solutions are often ignored by airline people because they cannot yet imagine this new world. It is crucial for leadership to ensure that they take a leading role in guiding the organisation to do things differently. The biggest risk in the current environment is to not move.

#### **4.5 Limitations and further considerations**

Aviation is at a turning point. Changing consumer behaviour and customer expectations, rise of middle classes in developing economies, the global political landscape, environmental concerns and technological development lead to a dynamic environment and challenges never seen before.

Digitisation leads to a large scale of transformation across multiple aspects of business. It creates enormous opportunities, but also represents risks if not managed properly. The strategic implications for organisation, industry ecosystems and society have not yet been fully grasped by business leaders nor governments. Digitisation creates new challenges not yet fully understood. They include the pace of change never seen before, cultural change, the impact on society and identification of skills needed, outdated regulations, how to overcome legacy systems, the need for funding of both digital and physical infrastructure. Industry and Governments leaders need to take up the challenges in order to ensure that the potential value for society and industry can be leveraged. The question of the value of digitisation for aviation, travel and tourism is estimated to reach up to \$305bn between 2016 and 2025 through increased profitability because of higher productivity, increased demand for products and services due to personalisation, sharing models and further improved perception of security. \$100 billion (bn) of value are expected to migrate from traditional to new players in the industry (for example from traditional travel booking intermediaries to OTAs). \$700 bn are the expected value for customers and wider society because of reduced environmental footprint, cost and time savings for travellers and safety and security improvements [29].

#### *4.5.1 Customer experience*

Travellers will expect a seamless experience tailored to their habits and preferences. Companies in the travel eco ecosystem along the customer journey will exchange data via secure technologies and continuously create insights. Travel will become frictionless and gradually blend with other daily activities. Digital technologies will augment the customer experience and the aviation workforce. Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) will help to turn data into insights and improve the customer experience, in the form of personalisation and chatbots, as well as take over specialist tasks of staff and transform the workforce. In addition, digital platforms, connected devices (Internet of things IoT), Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and other technologies will allow for innovation, better customer experiences and increased efficiencies, and lead to a complete revision or erasion of legacy old processes. With digitisation of identify increased collaborative efforts need to be taken to ensure cyber security. The example of British Airways hacker attack on customer data in August 2018 is a good reminder of how real this threat is. Closely linked are fake news and fake revisions and evaluations of services via social media platforms.

#### *4.5.2 Jobs and skills*

 The greatest societal impact of digitisation is probably the impact on the workforce and estimated to represent 1 in 11 jobs in the aviation and travel industry world wide according to the World Economic Forum study referenced above [31], potentially a number of 780,000 traditional job losses in the aviation and travel industry. Digitisation and new technologies will also mean displacement of current jobs in the industry, expected to be partially offset by next generation skilled jobs inside and outside aviation at the high and low end of the economy (for example in the area of robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics). All of these pose questions about future workforce which need to be addressed by industry and governments alike. New thinking is needed with regard to views on employment by society, concepts for next generation jobs and next generation occupation and pass time of people. Middle-level jobs that require routine manual and cognitive skills are the ones most at risk in terms of labour displacement and productivity effects [30]. Big legacy companies in particular struggle with the challenges of identifying new functions and redesigning organisation to integrate new and current functions in a way which suits the current dynamic environment [31]. Most departments have been run in silos, and staff fear about losing recognition and their jobs. Training programmes working with new technologies and helping to update relevant skills are required.

Top executives and board members have often been far away from digital and technological developments, and these areas have been specific entities in the

#### *Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

 organisation. It is a big challenge for these leaders to open up and learn fast about the relevant technologies they need to consider, what their set up should look like and strategic options and tactics how to get away from their legacy systems and processes. I have heard from many personal discussions with people within these organisations that many change activities do not go ahead as they should as leaders lack the insight and thus courage to decide to go ahead with radical changes when they get opposition from some people within the organisation.

#### *4.5.3 Legacy systems*

 Airlines in particular but also other aviation and travel stakeholders face limitations in their activities and speed of transformation as they need to keep legacy systems running while developing new technology. They are afraid of the risk of changing the underlying legacy technology. Yet there are new technologies available now which could help to develop an environment for the "new world" for specific routes only as a test case and to get confidence while keeping the legacy systems running. Such a multi-speed approach to information technology (IT) requires strong leadership to move ahead successfully. Other limitations often encountered are the fact that technology and the knowledge going along with it had been outsourced by main players for many years. It is essential to develop some in-house knowledge and skills even to be able to understand and manage IT suppliers better. Innovation in terms of technology often happens much more with smaller suppliers in the aviation and travel world, which leads to the question of small versus large suppliers in the eco system. Aviation stakeholders have often feared being exposed to smaller suppliers, and bigger one-stop suppliers have fostered this fear, yet the current environment asks for new approaches and a critical review of the choice of a supplier in terms of innovation potential.

#### *4.5.4 Regulation and legislation*

 The regulatory framework has a significant influence on transformation and can encourage or discourage the introduction of new technology. Innovation moves much faster than regulations and policy making, which means that Governments are forced to introduce regulations for nascent technologies. Concerted actions by industry leaders, regulators and policy makers are needed in order to maximise the value of digitisation in aviation, travel and tourism. The problem with fake news on social media reflects the risk of not embracing the new digital trends and not addressing the related opportunities and challenges. A series of actions for all participants in the ecosystem can be identified. They include the following according to the study by the World Economic Forum cited above [29]:

#### *4.5.5 Global political trends and economic evolution*

International departures have more than doubled between 1996 and 2016, from 650 million to 1.45 billion, according to the world bank [32]. It appears that growth will continue. According to the World Economic Forum report on digital transformation for aviation, travel and tourism [29] global emerging markets will account for 70% of forecast share of global airline travel by 2034. Demographic developments play a key role in terms of growth and how fast new technology will be adopted. Regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America will drive a main part of this growth due to a rising middle class. Technology adoption may be speedier in developed countries though. Businesses will also face the challenge to manage experiences for travellers who are less used to technology.

 Growth means that the aviation stakeholders need to adapt faster. But it also creates other problems in terms of overtourism and sustainability. This is further increased by additional cruise tourism. A number of places have started to tackle too many visitors. The authorities of the Philippines and Thailand have introduced a forced break for Boracay Island (Philippines) and Maya Bay (Thailand). Cinque Terre in Italy try an app with which tourists can see the number of people on the routes in real time. Machu Picchu in Peru turns to time slots. Jeju Island in South Korea faced almost 180 daily flights in 2017 and 15 million visitors, yet relief came not through the authorities but due to a Chinese ban not related to the underlying problem. Colombia's Caño Cristales site faces the challenge of balancing a delicate ecosystem with an unprecedented number of visitors. In a quite exceptional approach for a developing country they tackled this fast and introduced a set number of rules: no plastic bottles, no sunscreen or insect repellent in the water, no swimming in certain areas, no cigarettes, no feeding the fish. On arrival, visitors attend a briefing to make this completely clear. They are also training local tour guides and hosts [33].

Political tendencies to protectionism rather than continued globalisation as well as rising fuel prices could potentially have an impact on the growth forecast [34].

Other key considerations about the future evolution include

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

 company's relevance in the battle for consumer mindshare? How will this impact on future investments in both physical infrastructure and digital technologies.

#### **5. Key conclusions**

Aviation, particularly airlines' small profit margins and poor market capitalisation versus technology companies and other industries and increasing customer expectations are clear indicators that substantial change is needed to get fit for the twenty-first century. Airlines and airports have started the change process slowly, but a lot of digital transformation activities are ongoing in the meantime.

Main focus of activities is on customer experience improvements, cost efficiencies, better analytics and revenue optimisation as well as operational excellence. Internal and external innovation labs have been created to support the process, with more or less success so far. The most advanced companies have in-sourced or created at least some key parts of the software development activities.

 Yet more drastic changes are still the exception, most of the activities are focused on creating workarounds based on decade old processes and systems. A lot of industry players either find it difficult to navigate in these stormy waters, or they prefer to stay ashore in the waters they know well and avoid any marks which indicate new ways because they cannot imagine that they will work.

 It is critical for all board members and the whole leadership teams to have a deep understanding of the digital agenda, to ask the right questions and to drive the vision and the strategy. A big vision what the destination is and behaviour as prerequisites for branding and selling the trip to get the whole team work towards getting through stormy waters and test new ways to build the new world, even starting to build and show fast results are the main areas that still need to be completely fulfilled in many cases.

 There are a lot of innovative start ups in the market, lots of opportunities to start drastic change. Disruptions and faster change will mean that the storm will get even stronger. Political changes and regulations, particularly with the increasing protectionist agenda of some countries are a risk for the foreseeable future in terms of expected growth.

Cost pressures above all due to increased labour and fuel cost but also in the area of aircraft cost are other main risks to be aware of. The latter could become bigger given the deals by Airbus with Bombardier and by Boeing with Embraer, which will restore the duopoly which the two giant manufacturers have had for many years. Both Bombardier with their C-series and Embraer with their E-series had started to compete directly with the smaller versions of Boeing and Airbus jets.

 Technology will remain a key disruptor - but also a key enabler. If the big vision and behaviour start to get alive and are followed by branding and selling as well as building activities based on solution orientation, agile principles and the will to move forward and not remain in the past, then digitisation and current technological opportunities can open doors to do things previously thought impossible, creating seamless customer and staff experiences and creating endless new revenue and cost saving opportunities at the same time. Digitisation offers opportunities never seen before to shape the future. But industry leaders need to take up this chance and introduce the radical changes needed to create the potential value. Only the players who do this best will have a chance to survive and to compete successfully in the light of these dynamic technological changes and ever increasing customer demands. And competition is likely to increase strong players coming from originally other eco-systems such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba or others not seen before which will continue to move forward in the aviation and travel sphere.

#### **Acknowledgements**

I would like to thank IATA for having invited me as a jury member for their last hackathon in Kochi. Their hackathons contribute significantly to a change of mindset in the industry.

Thank you to the XXL Solutions team for research and empirical insight and to Hamburg Airport as the main sponsor for the think future event, which we have developed into the reference for innovation and transformation in the aviation and travel industry.

#### **Conflict of interest**

There is no conflict of interest to declare. Our strength is being an independent consultancy, which is very active in the digital transformation, innovation and start up travel and aviation arena.

*Aviation of the Future: What Needs to Change to Get Aviation Fit for the Twenty-First Century DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81660*

### **Author details**

Ursula Silling XXL Solutions - Do Things Differently, Geneva, Switzerland

\*Address all correspondence to<EMAIL_ADDRESS>
© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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*Aviation and Its Management - Global Challenges and Opportunities*

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[35] Keynote Presentation at Think Future 18. Ghosh B. Leveraging Innovation Through Insight Into Other Industries, Think Future. 2018. Available from: https://www. hamburgaviationconference.com/

[36] MMGY Study. Blount A. Portrait of American Travellers. 28/6/2017. Available from: https:// www.mmgyglobal.com/news/news-2017%E2%80%932018-portrait-of-

world-43700833

publications/

american-travelers

**76**

### *Edited by Arif Sikander*

Aviation has grown leaps and bounds within the last decade. Aviation courses and training at all levels have shown an exponential increase around the globe. Tere has been a restricted focus on writing books in this sector of the economy, mainly due to the shortage of expertise in this specialist and complex area. Tis book was writen with the purpose of meeting this need of the aviation sector. Due to the diversifed nature of aviation knowledge, which includes fying, engineering, airports, allied trades for aircraf and airports, airline and airport management and operations, education, etc., one text alone will not sufce and do justice to address all these areas. It is envisaged to develop subsequent parts of this book to cover all these knowledge areas. Tis book is the frst installment of any subsequent books and explores issues including airline management and operations, airline business models, airport systems, fight operational procedures, aircraf maintenance, runway safety management systems, and air trafc management. In particular, atention will be given to aspects such as analysis of air trafc in a domestic market, runway safety management systems, critical success factors for multiple MRO service providers, key pain points of the industry to be addressed to move into the future, new research on hub airports for international fights, new business models for airlines, and runway safety management systems. Tis book is useful to aviation managers, educators, students, and professionals interested in any of the above issues.

Published in London, UK © 2019 IntechOpen © Bradley Wentzel / Unsplash


**Chapter 4**

stability and toe erosion model for stream restoration. In: Stream

pp. 453-474

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Restoration in Dynamic Fluvial Systems: Scientific Approaches, Analyses, and Tools. American Geophysical Union. Geophysical Monograph Series 194.

Current Practice in Fluvial Geomorphology - Dynamics and Diversity

[43] Wu W, Wang SSY. Depth-averaged 2-D calculation of flow and sediment

[44] Xiao Y, Yang SY, Hu J, Tong SC, Fu XU, Chen Y. 2D mathematical modeling for fluvial processes considering the influence of vegetation and bank erosion. In: 11th International Conference on Hydroinfomatics HIC

transport in curved channels. International Journal of Sediment Research. 2004;19(4):241-257

2014; New York City, USA

[36] Struiksma N, Olsen KW, Flokstra C, De Vriend HJ. Bed deformation in curved alluvial channels. Journal of Hydraulic Research—iAHR. 1985;23(1):

[37] Talmon AM, Van Mierlo MCLM, Struiksma N. Laboratory measurements of the direction of sediment transport on transverse alluvial-bed slopes. Journal of Hydraulic Research. 1995;

[38] Thorne CR, Tovey NK. Stability of composite river banks. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 1981;6:

mechanisms of river bank erosion. In: Hey RD, Bathurst JC, Thorne CR, editors. Gravel Bed Rivers. Chichester:

[40] Waterman DM, Garcia MHA. Physically-based bank erosion model for composite river banks: Application to Mackinaw river, Illinois. IWRC-USGS Project Title: "Characterization of Critical Shear Stresses and Bank Material Erosion Rates on Gravelly Stream Banks". CFP 1-486445-191100

[39] Thorne CR. Processes and

Wiley; 1982. pp. 227-259

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[41] Wu W, Wang SS-Y, Jia Y. Nonuniform sediment transport in alluvial rivers. Journal of Hydraulic Research—iAHR. 2000;38(6):427-434

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Mississippi, MS 38677

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Transport Model V2.1, Technical Report No. NCCHE-TR-2001-3, National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering, The University of


**4.4 Anticancer action**

Some authors studied the antiproliferative effect of several isolated fractions of buttermilk obtained from food and nonfood solvents on some types of human cancer cells. Fractions, rich in phospho- and sphingolipids, have strong antiproliferative action on colon and ovary cancer cells. These observations allow to hypothesize the use of these phospho- and sphingolipids as functional food additives [27].


4. Conclusions

According to available literature and obtained results of ampelographic and genetic identification, Montenegro has a very long tradition of grapevine growing and very rich grapevine germplasm. There are varieties whose identification was done, but there are a lot of varieties with unknown origin and identity. Ampelographic description of 18 identified varieties as well as of 17 Kratošija biotypes was done and presented. During multiple years of research, genetic identification of 188 samples was carried out and the results revealed the original DNA profile for Vranac, Krstač, Žižak, Crna Loza, Čubrica, Lisičina, Razaklija crna, Kovačka bijela, Zadrimka, and Sijer. Kratošija, and every of its 17 biotypes, have the same DNA profile as Italian Primitivo, Californian Zinfandel and Croatian Crljenak Kaštelanski. Muškaćela is Moscato bianco while Trojka is Moscato violeto. Montenegrin Bioka is the same as Italian Francavidda and Croatian Zlatarica Vrgorska. The variety Razaklija is the same as Drenak crveni. For Japudžak the same SSR profile as for Turkish Yampincak is discovered.

Research and work on autochthonous and domesticated grapevine varieties in Montenegro are of great importance for the viticulture and winemaking sector. Having in mind this and very interesting results achieved, it was necessary to continue with investigation of Montenegrin grapevine germplasm. Further research with partners from the Institute for Vine and Wine in La Rioja will be done with the aim of analyzing a large number of samples across Montenegro, and then determining its origin and genetic relationships (pedigree analysis).


**2. Inhalation of some agents cause activation of the NF-κB inflammatory pathway in the lung**

#### **Asbestos**

Asbestos belongs to a group of physically occurring, hydrated mineral silicate fibers that are causally related to the progression of pulmonary diseases [88]. Iron, which exists in asbestos fibers, cause cellular redox changes by generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species, leading to activation of NF-κB. It has been shown that, after inhalation of crocidolite and chrysotile asbestos, nuclear translocation of RelA increases in rat airway epithelial cells (Table 1). The main reason is that macrophages phagocytize asbestos but cannot ''digest'' these fibers. Because the asbestos harms them, these macrophages secret TNF-α, and this cytokine mediates activation of NF-κB [73, 89-92].

task of this macrolide. Suppression of NF-κB activity reveals other proinflammatory molecules regulated by this factor as an AZM effect relevant to the treatment of CF [87].

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is known for enormous infiltration of neutrophils into the lungs accompanied by leak of serum proteins, especially albumin, into the alveolar space, blood loss in the intra-alveolar space, and interstitial edema, all important and frequent signs in exacerbation of ARDS. In spite of the occurrence of ARDS in all over the world, the precise pathophysiology mechanisms remain to be detailed [88].

Varying expression levels of proinflammatory cytokines are associated with the progression of ARDS. overexperssion of proinflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8 in the lung has been demontrated in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) of ARDS patients and is

Patients with proved ARDS revealed increased activation of NF-κB in alveolar macrophages, in comparison with control subjects without acute lung injury [73]. Because there were no notable increases in the levels of transcription factors, including CREB, AP-I , or SP- I activation, in alveolar macrophages from patients with ARDS, NF-κB is suggested to be a significant upstream regulator for cytokine gene expression in ARDS patients, because of its existence on the enhancer of proinflammatory cytokines (Table 1). The level of subunits p50, p65, and c- Rel decreased in cytoplasm of alveolar macrophages in ARDS subjects, proving the existence of an ongoing stimulus for NF-κB activation. Increased levels of oxygen radicals, proinflarnmatory cytokines, and endotoxin in ARDS might be associated

with NF-κB activation. TNF-a and IL-8 are increased in BAL of ARDS subjects [88].

**2. Inhalation of some agents cause activation of the NF-κB inflammatory**

Asbestos belongs to a group of physically occurring, hydrated mineral silicate fibers that are causally related to the progression of pulmonary diseases [88]. Iron, which exists in asbestos fibers, cause cellular redox changes by generation of intracellular reactive oxygen species, leading to activation of NF-κB. It has been shown that, after inhalation of crocidolite and chrysotile asbestos, nuclear translocation of RelA increases in rat airway epithelial cells (Table 1). The main reason is that macrophages phagocytize asbestos but cannot ''digest'' these fibers. Because the asbestos harms them, these macrophages secret TNF-α, and this

NF-κB activation can alsobe caused by oxygen radicals. Our in vivo data from a hemorrhage-induced murine model of ARDS indicates an outstanding role for xanthine oxidase, a kind of oxygen radical, in stimulation of NF-κB in lung cells [88]. Cytoplasmic and nuclear levels of IκBa are not notibly dissimilar in alveolar macrophages from ARDS subjects and controls, so these findings are rather unexpected, because signals that cause activation of NF-κB would be expected to generate phosphorylation. Alveolar macrophages have a significant protective role in mediating NF-κB activation in the lung and in initiation

**1.5 Acute respiratory distress syndrome**

correlated with poor outcome [88].

of neutrophilic inflammation [73, 88].

cytokine mediates activation of NF-κB [73, 89-92].

**pathway in the lung**

**Asbestos**

Table 1. The implication of NF-κB in inflamatory lung disease.


**4. Discussion**

The project Re-Coding represents an experience of updating current codes and normative framework to shape the morphology of a sustainable city. This project approach is a multiscale method that, from code design to city scale, can actively trigger sustainable impact by design. The relevance of this work is to be found in a number of aspects that can be generalized and suggested for future processes of normative updates to support sustainable development and environmental resilience, such as in the example shown about the roofs. In particular, a number of lessons can be drawn out from this experience and shared as general knowledge: (1) The institutional vision and wish to review and implement codes and normative framework is crucial to foster environmental sustainability change and resilience [69,70] and (2) the work of multidisciplinary research centers such as F*UL*L and R3C allowed us to analyze the understanding of the local normative framework and to update it on scientific-based solutions related to global-based knowledge advancement. Moreover, this work was crucial to increase the interfaces between clients, institutions, and practitioners, through the study of specific building elements, such as the one of the roofs. In this regard, although the methodology was applied to a limited number of neighborhoods in Turin, it was possible to highlight the potential of the roof surfaces of the overall city. This was possible, in particular, by understanding the relation between such potential changes and the current normative framework in use. Despite few rules limiting the use of roofs in the city, concerned mainly with the zoning of the city center, most of the potential uses are actually possible. Figure 15 summarizes the application of the results found after the application of the methodology that was utilized in support of the decision-making process that the Municipality of Turin undertook to revise its local environmental regulation. Moreover, the proposed methodology showed that it is possible to extend actions both to improve the energy performance of the building and environmental performance and to increase the intensity of use of flat surfaces and the related social impact. A latter process could be triggered widely through subjective and individual actions of the owners of the space under the roof that could be the potential users of that space or open these spaces to an urban and collective dimension. As explained in the following sections, many are the environmental, social, and economic benefits by the potential use of roof surfaces.

**Figure 15.** Application of the results: Re-Coding activities.

#### *4.1. Impact Assessment of Urban Rooftops' Renovation*

The achievement of resilient and sustainable cities depends on several factors, such as the characteristics of territory, the urban morphology, the energy performance of buildings, and the existing laws, constraints, and regulations. There is no one solution to reach this goal, but there are di fferent low-carbon strategies, some of which are presented in this work. In particular, three rooftop renovation strategies are presented, and the e ffect of the use of these strategies was assessed for the city of Turin at district level.

#### 4.1.1. Environmental, Social, and Economic Benefits

As it will be highlighted in the following subsections, the environmental, social, and economic impacts of rooftop 'green' renovations are widely recognized. Such benefits could be summarized as energy consumption reduction, UHI and air pollution mitigation, water management, sound insulation, and noise reduction, as well as ecological preservation, real estate market positioning improvement, building value increase, and psychological e ffects on the direct and indirect users, triggering economic and social activities, factors of enjoyment, concentration improvement, crime reduction, and productivity and creativity improvement. [8,36,37,71–73].


*The Application of Artificial Neural Network to Predicting the Drainage from Waste Rock… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96162*

in the training process, as a prediction of the drainage in the next 2 years will be performed after the training is completed. As the monitoring data of weather and drainage during the next 2 years are also available. The real weather data will be utilized as the input of the neural network. In real situation, weather forecasting data should be adopted for prediction purpose. The predicted drainage flow rates and acidities will be compared with the real monitoring values.

As shown in the **Figure 1**, only a single hidden layer is in the feedforward neural network adopted for this case study. So the number of neurons in the hidden layer is considered as a hyperparameter for the training process. A grid search is performed on 5, 10 and 20 neurons in the hidden layer to find the optimized size. The proposed neural network is trained through Levenberg–Marquardt backpropagation algorithm. The adaptive value (damping factor) is set to 0.001 initially, and will increase by 10 until the change of above results in a reduced performance value. The change is then made to the network and adaptive value is decreased by 0.1. The maximum adaptive value is set to 1e10. The maximum epochs before the stop of training is set to 1000. However, the training may be stopped early if the *MSE* on the validation vectors stops to improve or remains the same for 6 epochs in a row.

The proposed neural network is implemented through the machine learning toolbox built in commercial software MATLAB. The weather monitoring data are pre-constructed for both types of input layer through Microsoft Excel Macro before exporting into the MATLAB.


*3.4. Information Seeking*

Although the participants overwhelmingly indicated that they would go to the health center for health information, when asked who they talk to about their medical concerns only a few of the youth said they would seek out their doctor. The youth responded that they mainly go to their mom or extended family, including grandparents, aunts, uncles, and/or cousins. Other responses included their dad, siblings, teachers, or the internet.