Smarter Skies: How AI & Data Are Powering India’s Travel and Aviation, and Boom

Most people breeze through airport security, and board planes without giving much thought to the airline industry. As long as their flight is on time, they’re content to spend the journey working, watching a movie, or taking a nap. Little do they know of how much planning and coordination goes into making every flight experience feel effortless. 

Air travel today isn’t just about getting from point A to point B. It’s a carefully orchestrated operation that starts well before a flight is booked, and extends though check-in, inflight service, and post-flight engagement. When each interaction along this journey feels connected and tailored to the customer’s needs, a routine trip can become a deeply positive and memorable experience.

Every mile and every moment matters 

Imagine a customer planning their dream vacation. They scroll through destinations, compare options, book flights, and finally embark on their trip. Behind the scenes, travel and transportation companies work tirelessly to make the customer’s journey enjoyable. And increasingly,they’re doing it with Salesforce. Explore the leading global brands in the segment speaking about the success they had realised with Salesforce at The Future of Travel session delivered at the recently concluded Dreamforce’25.

What started off 25+ years ago as a simple CRM for sales teams has evolved into a full-service platform for airlines, powering personalised and safe experiences at every stage of travel:

• Before a trip: Automated personalised recommendations on Salesforce connect travellers to the destinations, accommodations, and activities they’ll love.
  
• During the trip: Identify up-sell and cross-sell opportunities based on Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) and loyalty status, even when the plane is mid-air. Enrich the customer 360 profile in Data Cloud with this new information so that Agentforce can deliver an even more personalised experience the next time guests travel with the airline.
  
• Post trip: Tailored travel offers, feedback capturing mechanisms, and loyalty programs keep the customer connection alive long after the trip ends.

Breakthroughs in Indian aviation

India’s airline sector is soaring to new heights. The country is currently the third-largest air transport market in the world in terms of departing O-D (origin-destination) passenger traffic. Approximately 174 million passengers traveled from and within India by air in 2024.

A massive digital transformation is also underway in India’s airline industry, as companies seek to reimagine customer engagement. Leading the way are Air India and IndiGo, both leveraging Salesforce to supercharge customer service.

Air India: A connected customer experience

In 2022, Air India embarked on a 5-year transformation plan to capture a domestic market share of 30%. As part of this journey, the airline chose Salesforce to modernise service experiences. 

• Through Salesforce Data Cloud, all customer data from Air India’s call center systems, passenger service systems, and enterprise data lakehouses is consolidated in a unified customer profile. 
• Service reps now have a complete view of every customer in the flow of work. This helps them provide contextual and personalised service the moment a call comes in.
• Einstein Assistive AI automatically classifies cases, and routes them to the most suitable rep.
• AI-powered recommendations help agents know the exact next steps for each case.
• Predictive AI enables agents to offer proactive solutions such as automatic seat upgrades for delayed flights.
• 5,50,000 service cases are seamlessly handled each month through Salesforce Service Cloud.
• With Agentforce, refund requests are resolved quickly. AI agents streamline and accelerate the end-to-end handling of such requests. Routine steps are automated, so service reps can focus on higher-value interactions.

Air India’s connected service is already revolutionising its contact centers, and is set to expand across in-flight and airport touchpoints, creating a seamless journey for passengers.

IndiGo: Unified, efficient service at scale

IndiGo’s flights may be low-cost, but its service is high quality. Multiple teams use Salesforce to resolve cases faster and more smoothly than ever.

• With automation, a team of just 1,280+ service reps handles over 1.2 million cases per month.
  
• Customer data from seven different systems flows into a single console, giving service reps a 360° view of every customer.
• Each incoming case is automatically categorised by keywords. For example, flight cancellation cases are segregated in one group, refund cases in another. This makes it easier to send out automated replies with targeted answers to customer queries.
• Through Salesforce Feedback Management, IndiGo captures 50 lakh annual customer responses about pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight experiences..

The Salesforce effect

By harnessing Salesforce, India’s largest airlines are moving beyond traditional customer service. They’re creating connected, proactive, and personalised experiences that delight passengers.

Innovating with AI

As more travellers take to the skies, the challenge for the airline industry is to scale up operations without increasing headcount or costs. 

Many companies are looking to AI to unlock new operational efficiencies, while meeting customer expectations for exceptional service. In fact, 82% of the service leaders surveyed in our global travel and hospitality trends report believe that investments in AI agents are essential to meet business demands. 

Here are eight ways agentic AI can support the airline industry: 

1. Proactive engagement: AI can continuously monitor the customer’s digital footprint for potential travel intentions. For example, if the customer books a hotel, or researches a conference, the system can send them timely travel offers and suggestions.
2. Personalised travel recommendations: AI agents can analyse the customer’s profile, preferences, and past bookings to recommend flights and travel activities that fit the individual’s needs.
3. Smart flight suggestions: By automatically assessing the customer’s travel schedule and even time zone differences, AI can recommend flights that are designed to minimise jet lag while improving passenger comfort.
4. Instant customer support: Agentic AI can answer traveller queries in real time across channels — WhatsApp, email, website, and more — instantly identifying ideal seat options, upgrades, or services.
5. Operational automation: AI can take on the heavy-lifting of back-end functions such as scheduling and inventory planning. This way, ground crew and cabin attendants can operate more efficiently.
6. Dynamic pricing: Predictive AI analytics can leverage market trends and historical data to forecast demand, and adjust ticket prices dynamically.
7. Targeted marketing campaigns: By analysing customer interactions and purchase behaviour, AI can help create personalised marketing campaigns that increase repeat bookings.
8. Augmented agent support: When a complex case comes in, AI can assist service reps by summarising the issue, retrieving relevant details, and suggesting next best actions. This way, cases are resolved faster.

AI’s potential is limitless if your data is ready

With every leap in AI, the possibilities for customer satisfaction and innovation keep expanding. But the real impact depends on how effectively airlines harness data – be it customer profiles, travel patterns, loyalty points, or online search behaviour.

Watch the video below to discover how your organisation can elevate every customer journey by leveraging real-time data and AI. See how data-driven insights can transform travel challenges into positive moments, thereby turning travellers into loyal advocates of your brand.