Blue Web is the digital heartbeat of our airline
Blue Web is the front-end application to search for available flights, buy tickets, pick your favourite seat on the airplane, and it handles your check-in when it’s time to fly. One application with reusable components serves as the e-commerce website for Air France and KLM in their branding.
We built the front-end with Angular, Typescript, SASS, and Apollo for GraphQL. The backend is on GraphQL with Apollo server on top of NodeJS and Redis. We deploy within Docker containers on the Kubernetes platform, but we are moving towards Azure.
How did Blue Web evolve?
When Air France and KLM merged, there was a difference in how we handled searching and shopping for flights. For instance, Air France would have split pricing in search flows. You would see the individual prices of outbound and inbound flights. KLM showed the total price immediately. We wanted one application for both companies. This way, we could use the same backend for both airlines. So we developed Unique Business Components. These are autonomous, replaceable and reusable front-end components, each with its unique business functionality. Based on these UBC’s we could build the different front-end applications.
Blue Web is a cool application, built on the latest technology. We work with a great team and have direct access to the larger Angular community.
In what way does Blue Web impact the organisation?
Blue Web is responsible for online check-ins. Because of the growth in online check-ins, we have fewer check-ins at the airport. This means, when online check-in doesn’t work for more than 4 hours, we need to handle all check-ins at the airport. Since there are only so many check-in desks, we calculated we would then need to close the airport down. So yes, Blue Web is a business-critical application. Blue Web handles over 1 million visitors on a normal day. When we have special campaigns on flights, this can easily double. The way we can scale both applications and servers is quite unique.
What are the technical challenges in Blue Web?
We built Blue Web in Angular. This is still a relatively new technology. We have to keep up with the latest implementation of all frameworks we use. We are fortunate to have a close relationship with the development team at Google. We visit the Angular Enterprise Summit every year to discuss new opportunities and see how we can help each other.
We apply the concepts of continuous integration and continuous delivery to release small bits of new features on a daily basis. A few years ago, upgrading the Angular framework would take two weeks. We evolved on that level and can upgrade in a day of work. You can read more about this in our blog post.
What makes Blue Web so interesting to work on?
If you think of an idea or a feature that we should implement, you get the chance to refine it to elaborate on the concept. You get to find a team to work with you, and you can build it. You don’t need permission to get started. You can do a lot for yourself, and you have the freedom to manage what’s necessary for a project. Whether you want to have an external knowledge session or like to learn on the job, we offer those opportunities.
With 17 nationalities in our team you really learn a lot from other cultures
Why work at AirFrance KLM?
When you are part of one of the software teams at Blue Web, you are responsible for releasing and managing the applications. The applications you help build are used by more than 150.000 users per day. We monitor daily to see if everything is working correctly.
Besides working on applications with such a significant impact, you will work closely with other global companies, share insights and be part of a growing development team.
Order API: Transforming our way of transactions
