Innovating with airborne analytics

Hong Kong-based airline Cathay Pacific knows this as well as anyone, as they use analytics to support decision making on all fronts: from determining planes fuel efficiency to improving customer experience to managing crews flight and rest schedules. Even something as mundane as luggage handling is getting an analytics makeover. Joe Locandro, the airline's chief information officer, is clear that data works in tandem with experience and business acumen when used for decision making. Analytics will give you statistical spreads, he notes, but you still need to have this thing called experience and insight. In an interview, Locandro describes how his company uses data and what caveats he puts on its role.