In February 2020, Linda Jojo (pictured), executive vice president of technology and chief digital officer of United Airlines Inc., was in a meeting with Amazon Web Services Inc. to discuss how technology would transform the airline.

One month later, the world turned completely upside down as a pandemic virtually stopped global travel

“Nothing tells you how important your customers are than standing in the middle of O’Hare Airport and not seeing any,” Jojo recalled. “That actually happened in April of 2020. We knew we had to take advantage of the crisis and think about everything. What can we do about transforming our technology?”

Jojo spoke with John Furrier and Lisa Martin, co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed how the airline developed a number of innovative solutions for customers and employees using AWS technology. (* Disclosure below.)

Becoming travel-ready

United turned to AWS for help in managing what had suddenly become a very challenging transportation climate. A team of airline employees worked with AWS tools and cloud technologies to build new solutions for a changed world that required uploaded proof of testing or vaccination to book a flight.

“That group came up with something we now call the Travel-Ready Center,” Jojo said. “We use Amazon SageMaker, and we have machine learning models that will validate within seven seconds that you are ready to fly. You can bypass the lobby of the airport and all of the document checking that’s going on because you’re travel-ready.”

In addition to a renewed focus on the customer, United has also worked to leverage technology in making the jobs of its own personnel easier. This includes Agent on Demand, a mobile solution that allows United staff to access key information in a wide range of environments.

“We made sure the technology they used worked on a phone or an iPad, so we weren’t limited by the number of stations at a gate,” Jojo explained. “We really focused on service for our employees. How do we give them information in the palm of their hand to treat you in a personal way?”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE