Fly With Me: A Conversation With SkyTeam's Mauro Oretti
When I was little, I would stare at the sky and watch planes either begin or end their journey toward Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. I would wonder where these planes came from as they crossed the South Florida skies. The mechanics of airplanes didn’t fascinate me. I was just grateful for seamless flights. Instead, what an airplane symbolized appealed to me: adventure and new beginnings. Airplanes are the physical manifestation of going outside one’s comfort zone to grow as a person.
Airlines offer travelers the opportunity to see the world. Most carriers want to maximize profit and minimize personal space. Instead of feeling like a person, you are crammed into a sardine-like container, counting the seconds toward landing. As a traveler, navigating the buzzwords thrown in every credit card deal or airline points system is complex. You feel lost in a labyrinth of bureaucratic terms and conditions. But there is hope—one airline alliance advocates for safety, comfort, and seamlessness. SkyTeam enables travelers to go on any 18-member flights (such as Delta Air Lines, Air France, KLM, Korean Air, etc.) with guaranteed world-class customer service and transferable miles.
To better understand how SkyTeam empowers travelers, I spoke with Mauro Oretti, Vice President of Operations, who shared insights into their customer-focused approach.
Interview with SkyTeam's Mauro Oretti
Can you share your journey and what led you to your current role at Skyteam?
I was born in Turin, Italy—the birthplace of modern Italy. At sixteen, I went as an exchange student to St. Paul, Minnesota, attending the last year of a US high school there before returning to Italy for the last year of my Italian high school. At a time when the military draft was still mandatory, I chose civil service instead, as a conscientious objector, at the same NGO I had been abroad with.
Afterwards, with a friend and my then girlfriend—now wife—I spent a year in New Zealand, doing various odd jobs, mainly hotel/restaurant-related. Once back in Turin we started managing a restaurant, thought better of it after a year and ‘finally’ entered the corporate world. I joined Valeo, a large multinational automotive company specializing in vehicle parts and products. By then I was 24. I worked there as export manager for five years before realizing that the automotive industry didn’t align with my interests. Wanting to pursue something I perceived as more fun, or exciting, I joined Alitalia, the Italian airline, now defunct. My role was to represent the carrier in markets outside Italy.
At Alitalia, I was mainly involved in the commercial arena (sales, marketing, reservations, ticketing, pricing, airport, and eventually alliances). My work led me to live in multiple locations, including Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Milan, Rome, New York City, and Amsterdam. After a six-month sabbatical in Sardinia in 1997, I became the director of network strategy, then later the director of alliances and network agreements, establishing the department and participating in the quasi-merger with KLM. Once that was called off in 2000, I led the process conducive to Alitalia joining the SkyTeam global airline alliance, as its sixth member, in 2001. Meanwhile, Alitalia was navigating challenging times, culminating in bankruptcy. In 2009, I officially joined SkyTeam in Amsterdam as an expat seconded by Alitalia, as vice president sales & marketing, in charge of—among other things—customer experience and loyalty. Earlier, I helped to incorporate the organization, choosing Amsterdam as its headquarters. I have since worked to foster greater collaboration among SkyTeam’s member airlines in various additional fields, including governance, airports, lounges, finance, data & analytics, legal, etc.
Image courtesy of SkyTeam. SkyTeam stands out for prioritizing customer comfort and usability. How does the alliance create a seamless experience across its member airlines?
In the aviation industry, airlines created alliances primarily to extend their networks (typically along three axes: destinations, frequencies, and connectivity, i.e. breadth, depth, and density). Another important value driver was loyalty—the possibility to accrue and redeem miles across all member airlines. During the first 10/12 years, the focus was on expanding the partnership base (more members), growing the brand, developing commercial programs, and providing customer benefits, e.g., lounges. Later on, due to the advent of joint ventures, equity stake alliances, etc., creating a streamlined end-to-end customer journey became more crucial. Technology, digital transformation, and sustainability are the latest ‘trending’ areas in which we are busy.
A seamless travel experience is an incredibly ambitious goal. Anyone who has ever traveled on a multi-metal (with more than one airline on the same itinerary) journey may have experienced the so-called ‘seams’. We chose specific touchpoints warranting a multilateral approach. Priority services are a good example: SkyPriority is one of our most appreciated benefits, available at up to eight touch points across 970+ airports.
Overall, SkyTeam’s role is to support airlines in their quest to succeed, providing a multilateral platform (consisting of standards, products, programs, technology, policies and the like) to help them achieve their goals, collectively and individually.
What inspired SkyTeam to focus on transferable miles and world-class customer service, and how does this set it apart from competitors?
Aviation alliances are more similar than they are dissimilar. However, there are elements of differentiation. SkyTeam is the only alliance with a dedicated cargo arm, for example. Furthermore, in our DNA, integration plays a big part, as some of our founding members (namely Delta, Air France and now Korean Air) carry a wealth of experience in mergers and acquisitions (respectively with Northwest, KLM and Asiana). The current transatlantic joint venture between Delta, Air France, KLM, and Virgin Atlantic is the only existing airline joint venture that is profit-based. Every other joint venture is revenue-based. Additionally, for SkyTeam, sustainability is a focus area, as exemplified by our TAC (The Aviation Challenge) initiative.
Image courtesy of SkyTeam. Loyalty programs, points systems, and credit card offers can feel overwhelming for many travelers. How does SkyTeam simplify these systems for its customers?
SkyTeam airlines are connected through a middleware called ‘digital spine’, which bypasses the need for bilateral connections through a technology hub. The digital spine acts as a ‘translator’. When an airline sends a message in a specific format, the spine translates it into a format that each airline understands, irrespective of the standards used. While other alliances have similar setups, SkyTeam has a leading edge in certain areas, such as loyalty products and check-in. Before the latest, HTML-based digital evolutions, airlines always used older technologies (like EDIFACT and teletype) to exchange files and messages. These technologies, while very advanced in the ’70s, are now obsolete.
Initially, alliances' ambition was to focus on front-end services, offering strong branded products and programs. Now, however, the focus is shifting toward becoming an ‘ingredient brand’—an invisible brand that mostly operates behind the scenes, offering white label solutions.
What is the most rewarding part of your role at SkyTeam?
Complexity, learning, and the international dimension. Not a day goes by without me learning something new. Learning is an essential part of the job. I have the opportunity to witness ‘live’ how geopolitical dynamics influence business decisions.
What is next for SkyTeam? Are there any upcoming initiatives or innovations you’re excited about?
We will continue to invest in digital transformation, sustainability, and cargo. We are also exploring intermodality, i.e., the integration between railways and airlines.
Image courtesy of SkyTeam.
Comments