With over 45,000 flights and 2 million passengers flying each day, keeping the airline industry on schedule is a herculean task. From mechanics and maintenance crews to flight teams and agents, and the ever-unpredictable mother nature, any of these factors can create a cascading domino effect of delays and cancellations—causing stress for both passengers and airlines. That’s why advantages such as the enhanced connectivity of 5G are critical for airlines to track real-time issues and allow employees to quickly collaborate to keep flights on schedule. 

In this episode of The Restless Ones, we sit with Vikram Baskaran, Vice President of IT Services at Alaska Airlines, who is spearheading this once regional airline towards becoming one of the technology pioneers of the industry. Vikram believes the key to his mission of providing safe, award-winning experiences to Alaska’s passengers is for his organization to act as a smart connector. With dozens of interdependent functions operating behind the scenes, Vikram has utilized 5G so Alaska employees can act as a “virtual flash mob,” working together as one. Beyond collaboration, multi-edge computing, VR, and increased automation capabilities are all on Vikram’s roadmap to greater efficiency in the skies.