Copa Airlines

Data takes off at Copa Airlines


We're in the airline business, so information varies a lot—and there is a lot of it. Millions and millions of passengers, with millions of transactions. And with Tableau, they are easily managed.

Copa Airlines was founded in 1947 as the national airline of Panama. Today Copa Airlines helps millions of travelers get to and from destinations across the globe. And in order to use that data, Copa Airlines turned to Tableau. In this video, four Copa Airlines employees talk about how they are gaining more insight from their data—and having more fun in the process—with Tableau.

Video in Spanish

Tableau: What was your first impression of Tableau?

Ingrid Gudiño Sánchez, Application, Integration and Information Services Director: Wow! The first time we saw Tableau, I could not believe it. The ease, the speed with which it presented the information.

Tableau: What would you say is the benefit of Tableau?
Roberto Del Rio Ayala, Wholesalers Coordinator: I think that now with Tableau you no longer worry about how to use the information but rather how to analyze it, how to think about it, how to take more advantage.

It's marvelous, for example, to see how each of our customers behaves. Everything is there, a few clicks.

We knew we had a lot of customers—or we knew it, but we did not know how each one of them was.

Now with Tableau it's very visual to see them, to know how they behave, what their characteristics are. That helps us a lot to make better decisions, to be more assertive.

Tableau: Is Tableau changing things in your daily job?
Roberto: Yes, definitely. Once you have access to the information so easily and quickly, you become much more creative—you want to manipulate the information, you want to retrieve more data.

Well, Tableau provides you with all the tools to develop creativity and to display it in different ways and understand it much better.

Jarrett Vaucher, Senior Planning Analyst: The first day I used Tableau it was great. Because that changes my day-to-day life. When I used Tableau for the first time, like "Wow! I have to learn and take advantage of this tool because it's going to change for me, for the company, for the industry."

Before, I was managing several files and in these files there was a great amount of data that I could not produce and see that it was there.

But with Tableau, with a few clicks, I was able to see this data that I did not know existed. So this brings a lot of value, day to day.

Olga Guizado, Senior Analyst: Tableau is dynamic, interactive, and a lot of fun. Because it’s fun, it’s not the old way—it makes meetings fun and exciting.

Tableau: Are you looking at large quantities of data?
Ingrid: We're in the airline business so that information varies a lot, and there is a lot of it. Millions and millions of passengers, with millions of transactions, and with Tableau they are easily managed.

Tableau: Can you describe the data sources you use in Tableau?
Ingrid: Initially, we are connecting with the data warehouse—it's InterData. That data warehouse has 18 or 20 sources of information.

But the passing users are connecting it to the People soft structure, to flat files, they connect sources that are not necessarily connected to the data warehouse.

They are the ones that invent and do a million things, more than we do.

Tableau: Are you able to get more done now that you have Tableau?
Ingrid: I could not believe the graphics, the speed, the clarity and how quickly so many things could be built.
Jarrett: I can put all my data in on Excel file.
Add that file directly and work in three, four seconds on Tableau. And then seconds later I have a graph, a bar chart, whatever I want—and quickly!

Before it would take me three days to update a dashboard. And right now I can do everything in three hours.

Roberto: Before using Tableau there were reports that would take a week, hours to do. Now, in the matter of just preparing the dashboard and in minutes you end up with the information.

Tableau: Are you using Tableau across the company?
Ingrid: We're using Tableau in a good part of the company. Almost all of it: human resources, finance, planning, income, everything related to operational analysis. It started in small areas and later is started growing, growing, growing until it's almost viral. Everyone wanted it.

Tableau: Fantastic! Any thoughts about what it would be like if you didn’t have Tableau?
Olga: If they would tell me tomorrow that I couldn't use Tableau any more, the truth is I would look for a new job. I would fight to the death! (laughs)

Jarrett: If Tableau were withdrawn right now, everyone would cry.