China Eastern Beefs up Digital Transformation

China Eastern Air Holding Co. Ltd (China Eastern) geared up to promote application of information technology in such fields as operation, management and user experience during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), which boosted its high-quality development and digitalization.

China Eastern started to promote data-based digital transformation as early as 2016.

In 2019 and the end of 2020, the company launched an integrated 5G-based smart travel service system and an airport face identification self-service mode.

Such innovations that integrate virtual reality and emerging digital technologies have brought great convenience to passengers and shortened check-in periods to within a minute.

It is estimated that the entire procedure from check-in to boarding has been reduced to within 20 minutes thanks to the smart travel system and self-service mode.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan, China Eastern also explored other aspects of its operations.

For example, the company built a 5G-based smart hangar application platform which helped it realize intelligent and transparent hangar management and improved hangar security.

It also developed a smart customer service system based on smart human-machine interfaces and voice and speech recognition to improve passengers' travel experience.

What's more, China Eastern initiated a pandemic prevention and control cloud service mode covering the airlines, the airport and the cities in early 2020 when the COVID-19 was raging. The mode reduced contact infections between passengers and was promoted in the aviation field.

So far, China Eastern has been in full swing in digital transformation in fields of smart marketing, travel and operations services, security management, data governance and cutting-edge technology and innovation.

It has basically completed a mixed cloud system and advanced information security protection, which lays a solid foundation for the company's future informatization.

In the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), China Eastern will continue to beef up digitalization and develop as a smart cloud airline with innovative technologies.

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)