Ryanair troubleshoots plane problems with Qlik's analytics

A line of aircraft waiting to taxi to the runway.

Ryanair is using Qlik software to help it fill more flights and improve the different services it offers to customers.

The Irish airline's BI team is using QlikView and Qlik Sense to gain insight into the business's operations and to inform business decisions.

Shane Finnegan, senior BI developer at Ryanair, said that analytics experts at the airline wanted to consume their data in different ways to how end users wished to do so.

"We wanted a platform that would allow us to meet these differing needs. Qlik offered two complementary products to do just that QlikView and Qlik Sense. QlikView can be used by staff who have in-depth analytical roles, such as for those who work in finance or marketing," he said.

"Qlik Sense has then been overlaid on top of this so that staff in more time-sensitive departments say in Ground Ops or Flight Ops can get quick and easy-to-digest data visualisations, showing instantly what's going on, where there's an issue, quantify the issue, and address the issue."

The airline will also look to use Qlik in the future to improve its in-flight retail offering, as well as helping to optimise the supply chain by understanding the anticipated passenger mix on a given flight and matching this with an appropriate range of products and sufficient stock for the flight.

"With Qlik, we're building a complete overview of what's going on across the business and it is playing a major role in the way we are evolving the services we offer to customers," said Finnegan.

"Ultimately, we want to find the best ways to make our customers happy onboard, while being able to offer them the lowest fares on the market and Qlik gives us the foundation to make educated decisions which will make that notion a reality."

Rene Millman

Rene Millman is a freelance writer and broadcaster who covers cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and the cloud. He also works as a contributing analyst at GigaOm and has previously worked as an analyst for Gartner covering the infrastructure market. He has made numerous television appearances to give his views and expertise on technology trends and companies that affect and shape our lives. You can follow Rene Millman on Twitter.