REPUBLIC AIRWAYS

The mobile app that saved an airline

Streamlining critical day-to-day communications, boosting employee morale, and updating the perception of a 40-year-old Airline Company.

THE CLIENT 

Republic Airways

Efficiently operating more than 1,500 flights a day across the country demands that crew members have fast access to crucial information. Republic Airways faced the challenge of unlocking this information from legacy software and making it available to their 4,000 pilots and flight attendants on the go—all while maintaining access to legacy systems and adhering to strict regulatory standards.

• Second largest regional airline in the U.S.
• $1.2 Billion yearly revenue

SERVICES

• UX Research
• User Flows
• Personas
• Journey Maps
• Information Architecture
• Ideation
• Wireframing
• Branding UI
• Prototyping

THE CHALLENGE 

Get faster and more efficient information into the hands
of the flight crew.

Seeing the latest scheduling changes, understanding flights details, and getting crew member contact information often meant rushing to a secure “crew room” that may be far from where they needed to be next.

These challenges and others added up, impacting not only crew members’ efficiency but their quality of life as well. In an industry where top talent is tough to keep, Republic knew they had to take significant steps to stand out, and dedicated this project to making crew members’ lives easier.

• Despite being profitable, Republic filed for bankruptcy due to
shortage of qualified pilots
• Company was losing talent to other airlines with better employee tools
• More than 8 years without a labor contract with the pilot’s union
• Crew members have a difficult time accessing critical
 day-to-day information

“In my 20 years of experience, this is the one IT project that has had the quickest success in the shortest amount of time.”

MATT KOSCAL
Republic Airways Chief Administrative Officer

DISCOVERY

We conducted over 200 hours of interviews with employees across the company to understand the complex problems they faced from multiple perspectives.

Ultimately, many of their challenges came down to getting and providing information crucial to their day-to-day business.

PERSONAS

Personas were created to represent the different departments at Republic: Pilots, Attendants, Maintenance, Scheduling, and Operations.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE

Information architecture was mapped out for stakeholder buy-in, a more technical understanding of the platform as well as to start laying the groundwork with development.

THE SOLUTION 

A mobile app that allowed crew members to access critical information in a secure way no matter where they were.

Helping Republic find impactful solutions meant working closely with multiple stakeholders—the executive team, IT, crew members, external vendors, and others to understand how potential solutions impacted multiple areas of the business. Through close ongoing collaboration with the Product Owner and key employee groups, we were able to focus on the highest value features

IDEATION & WIREFRAMES

91%

Voluntary usage rate among
5,000 crew members

42.1%

ROI calculated by Republic
in app’s first year

6.1%

On-time departures
improvement in year one

3.4%

On-time arrivals
improvement in year one

CALENDAR

Simply having an up-to-date calendar on hand was a huge improvement to the lives of the crew members.

• Easily see the flight schedule
• Easy access to duty hours for compliance
• Hotel info and training dates were a big win

TRIP DETAILS

Instant access to all flight details saves hours of phone calls and reams of printouts.

• Up to date details and gate assignments

• Calculating block and duty time automatically 
 replaced the old laminate cards

• Details included maps of all airport gates as well 
as internal crew rooms
• Access to crew profiles and who is on your crew 
 for the flight

COMPLIANCE

Compliance was a manual task prior to the CrewLife app. Crew members carried around a laminate chart to calculate their own hours.

• Instantly calculated compliance hours

• Easy access to the Compliance chart for visual 
 confirmation

UP-TO-DATE QUALIFICATIONS

Besides compliance hours, keeping up to date with personal qualifications was a big priority.

• Quick access to personal compliance 
 requirements and their expiration dates

• This replaced the old manual task of phone calls 
 and emails going back and forth from HQ to 
 crew members.

MEASURING EMPLOYEE SENTIMENT

Measuring Crew sentiment of features and ideas has led to further app improvements.

UP-TO-DATE PAY SUMMARY

Getting access to pay info used to be a large multi-step task. Giving the Crew access to pay summary has greatly reduced stress.

HOTEL & TRANSPORT INFO

Removing the guesswork has taken a load off of crew members' shoulders. The bonus win was letting the crew leave tips for other members about a specific hotel.

Prior to the CrewLife app, crew members often had to source their own transportation and lodging, just like you or I do on a vacation.

CRITICAL NOTIFICATIONS

Knowing who to contact and how to contact them had always been a pain point at Republic. Not anymore.

The CrewLife app included an easily searchable directory of departments and employees.

HOTEL & TRANSPORT INFO

Removing the guesswork has taken a load off of crew members' shoulders. The bonus win was letting the crew leave tips for other members about a specific hotel.

Prior to the CrewLife app, crew members often had to source their own transportation and lodging, just like you or I do on a vacation.

RESULTS

DETAILS

BUSINESS

CONNECTIONS

CONTACT

© 2022 Adam Yale. Product Designer & Strategist