At the end of 2019, Harbour Air also became the first airline in the world to launch a commercial e-plane. On December 10, 2019 Greg McDougall, CEO and founder of Harbour Air Seaplanes, took the world’s first all-electric commercial aircraft, a DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver, on its inaugural flight.

Harbour Air’s native iOS and Android apps were designed with modern UI and an improved booking flow. The application allows users to book flight reservations, view upcoming and past flights, and access 360-degree videos of Harbour Air’s unique scenic routes. Frequent flight options were incorporated (which adapts to user preferences over time) as well as a more robust customer help section.

Additionally, FreshWorks Studio fully reimagined Harbour Air’s website, creating a modern and friendly UX that improved functionality for seamless travel bookings. We used WordPress and  created custom documentation for the client to easily manage select content. The site works in tandem with the flight mobile app, allowing users to simplify bookings across platforms.

In the 2017 Mobile Travel Trend survey, 90% of travel companies said that having a mobile strategy is ‘critical’ or ‘very important’ to the future success of their organization (Travelport Digital, 2018). As one of the largest all-seaplane airlines in the world, Harbour Air feels the same, with its fleet and services comparable to other top airlines. Part of their goal to be competitive with these airlines included the development of a mobile application and the redesign of the existing website to help draw and maintain more clientele.

The previous website saw visitors directly going to the booking widget and leaving the website immediately after without seeing any of the additional content, such as special deals, offers, or events. Harbour Air was seeking a solution that would keep clients on the website longer, to allow them to see more offers and content.

“The ongoing growth of mobile has impacted how travelers are using apps on their phone for travel, with app usage stronger than ever. 64% of travelers currently have a travel app installed on their phone and 69% use those apps on a regular basis.” (Travelport Digital, 2018) Trends like this show why Harbour Air approached FreshWorks Studios to create an airline mobile app that would allow its users to book a flight, search flight status, and get the latest information on Harbour Air.

The team at FreshWorks conducted multiple focus groups and looked at heatmaps and analytics to determine how to improve the old website for usability. An additional focus group was held that specifically targeted the development of the Harbour Air mobile app. Using focus groups was essential in determining user behaviour and getting a deeper insight into what the typical person expects to find and be able to do on the Harbour Air website and within the app. It was a crucial element in the discovery process. Focusing on the user’s experience in the design process, the website was completely reimagined, making it very easy to find content for website visitors and for Harbour Air to update their own content themselves moving forward.

While the app makes interacting with Harbour Air content easy for everyone, it has also significantly reduced the time Harbour Air’s High Flyers spend on booking flights thanks to the app’s ability to save booking information and preferred flight times. Additionally, the all-seaplane airline gave FreshWorks free reign on updating the terminal screens, ensuring a cohesive end-to-end look and feel. 

Harbour Air Group also required a full redesign of their website to match the touch and feel of their brand new mobile application. Incorporating results of focus groups, analytics and heat-mapping, we fully reimagined Harbour Air’s website, creating a modern and friendly UX that improved functionality for seamless travel bookings. We used WordPress and created custom documentation for the client to manage select content.

The Harbour Air airline mobile app allows its users to check flight status and book a flight directly on the user’s mobile device. Additionally, the user can see what it’s like to take Harbour Air via VR in-app experiences for real Harbour Air Routes. 

The new Harbour Air website follows the same look and feel as the mobile application and features location-based content offers, integrates smoothly with a third-party booking system, is mobile responsive, and allows the Harbour Air team to easily manage their own content in-house.

Both the mobile application as well as the website now allow users to save their booking credentials, which makes for a faster, more convenient booking process.

The iOS app is coded in Swift while the Android app uses Kotlin. The web app was built on a custom WordPress website. The Harbour Air airline mobile app and website utilize an existing backend for the booking process.

Investing time and energy in determining user behaviour through analytics, heatmaps, and focus groups allowed FreshWorks to successfully redesign the Harbour Air website and create a mobile app with a cohesive look and feel.

The restructuring of the website will ensure that visitors will see location-based content and take advantage of offers that are relevant to them.  By allowing users to store their booking information, the whole purchasing process has been simplified, especially for Harbour Air’s valuable High Flyers client segment.