how ryanair reduced booking time from 5 to less than 2 minutes: couchbase connect 2015
TRANSCRIPT
How Ryanair Reduced Booking Process from 5 Minutes To Less Than 2 Minutes
Ryanair - Lead Developer
Vladimir AtanasovLead developer - Android team
@vladoatanasov, [email protected]
● 30th birthday of Ryanair low fares in Europe● Europe’s No 1 traffic – 100m customers/year● Europe’s No 1 coverage – 73 bases● 1600 daily flights● 190 destinations in 30 countries● Fleet of 330 Boeing 737-800 (380 new)
Europe’s No. 1 Coverage
Europe’s No. 1 Market Share
Saving Europe’s Customers €11.7bn Per Year
Average Ryanair fare: €46
Average competitor fare: €163
Average Ryanair saving: €117
2014/2015 customers: 100,000,000
Ryanair’s customers save €11.7bn
Always Getting Better
Always Getting BetterRyanair has a new customer-centric focus
Positive Feedback
“ Ryanair's strategy of being nicer tocustomers has had a bigger impact on itsperformance than lower oil prices which
have benefited some airlines in the short term.”
Reuters.com
Video
Negative Feedback on Previous Version of the App
Some Apps Don’t Travel Well
● Wi-Fi is not always readily available● With typical client-server apps, you can
incur additional charges when traveling● When your connection is slower than my
grandfather with ankle weights, some apps can behave erratically
What Needed To Be Fixed
“ We realized that some apps don’t travel well in that when you are abroad, some apps, especially travel apps, don’t
perform as well as you like”
Paul Sheridan, Senior Software architect, [email protected]
Why Did Ryanair Choose Couchbase?
● Ryanair switched to a mobile-first approach ● Couchbase Server + Sync Gateway +
Couchbase Lite suited Ryanair’s needs perfectly
● Easy to switch to, because native API’s require almost no learning
Why Did Ryanair Choose Couchbase?
● Open source – not a black box● Great technical support – people are actually
paid to build it● Large developer community – 70,000 active
developers and growing
Why Did Ryanair Choose Couchbase?
● Document conflict detection and resolution out-of-the-box
● Easy to control document access via channels● Querying documents via views
We Didn’t Have To Implement Our Own Sync
● It’s a tough nut to crack
● Change notifications and conflict resolutions can become very complex, very quickly
● It’s a huge distraction for our already busy developers
We Didn’t Have To Implement Our Own Sync
● It would delay the projects and would increase development costs
● We don’t have to worry about QA● I am not very clever; I’m not going to
get it right the first time
We Implemented Smart Caching In a Week
● Implemented in about a week● Couchbase Lite takes care of all
connectivity issues for us● Drastically improved app response times● Saved 80 GB mobile-to-network traffic daily● Example based on our implementation:
https://github.com/Ryanair/resource-sync-example
How Does The Customer Benefit?
● Booking process reduced from 5 minutes to less than 2 minutes
● Less traffic between devices and our servers● Application is much more responsive● Users are happier with their experience
Major Improvements to the Current Version of the App
What’s Next?
● Recommendation engine● Personalized Ryanair experience● Faster flight search● Continue to simplify every aspect of
travel
Industry Trends & How Couchbase Can Help
● IoT opens new possibilities for Ryanair● Integration with wearables● Peer-to-peer can be used during flights● The user journey should go beyond
the mobile/desktop screen
Questions?Thank you!