Playing Chicken with Airline Distribution Channels

January 11, 2011

The New Year began with the most significant travel distribution news in at least a decade, some “fireworks” which will have a dramatic influence on the airline and travel markets.

For some time, American Airlines has been talking about the revival of direct distribution channels, including direct distribution to travel agencies, and it didn’t hide its effort to develop a new API for this channel based on XML messaging. Sometime last year, American was ready with its API and began to launch its challenge.

As American’s contracts with major Online Travel Agencies (OTA) began coming up for renewal, American dared to suggest to the OTA companies that the link to its schedule and fares should be “direct connect” to American’s reservation system, instead of through the old fashioned (and costly) GDS technologies and protocols.

In late December 2010, announcing it was unable to reach an agreement with Orbitz to implement a direct connect link, American removed its fares from the Orbitz website.

In an odd display of comradeship, Orbitz competitor Expedia responded on New Year’s Day by removing American flights from its website. Then, within a week, Sabre, American’s largest GDS partner (and a former subsidiary) downgraded American flights in its displays, increased American’s fees, and moved to bring an early end to its distribution agreement with American.

It is not as if direct distribution was unknown in the industry before this event, nor as if many airlines don’t have a preference for direct Internet distribution over distribution through intermediaries such as the GDS companies. But the fact that a major, global carrier decided to break out of the “sacred” chain of Airline–>GDS–>OTA, meant that, after all, this chain may not be as indispensable as the GDS and OTA companies want us to believe.

News coverage, quoting a variety of industry personalities (aligned in some way with the GDS and OTA companies), has primarily portrayed American’s stand for direct connection as “a new model that is anti-consumer and anti-choice.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the ability of a travel website to display an airline’s fares using a direct connection to the airline’s database is what allows consumers to see the most up-to-date information, including fares which may be available on the airline website but have still not been loaded in the GDS databases.

Strangely enough, the direct connect model is already deployed by many OTA companies to display the fares of airlines not present in the GDS databases. Consumers have benefited, not been harmed, by this. American’s proposal does not introduce any new policy, and certainly no technology hurdle, to the OTA business.

But American is now the most illustrious airline to insist on bypassing the GDS model.

In my opinion, American Airlines is being discriminated against, if not bullied, in an attempt by the GDS and OTA companies to prevent a domino effect of other global airlines going in the same direction.

But the GDS and OTA companies are on the losing end of this battle. Since the creation of the World Wide Web, the implementation of direct connectivity between the source of information and its end users has been inevitable. It was just a matter of time before the major airlines would begin to fully embrace the potential of the Internet. And consumers will benefit.

Happy New Year. It is already looking like an interesting one.

Novak

Volagratis, AirKiosk System Link

March 28, 2009

AirKiosk System customer Blu-Express.com on BravoFly.com

Cheap fares from Rome, with Blu-express on BravoFly.com

Flights of Blu-Express.com, the low-cost brand of Blue Panorama Airlines, are now available for sale through BravoFly.com using an AirXML Service link between the popular travel booking site and the AirKiosk Internet Reservations System.

Blue Panorama Airlines organized the connection project, marking another milestone in its innovation of low-cost distribution strategies.

“We are very pleased with the link between our AirKiosk AirXML and Volagratis, which powers the BravoFly site,” said George Michalopoulos, Commercial Director of Blu-Express.com. “The AirXML API, which has become a cornerstone of our distribution strategy, once again has proven highly reliable and easy for customers to link to.”

Volagratis developers took advantage of the full suite of AirXML API transactions – from realtime fares availability to direct payment option – to build the link, a process completed within few weeks.

The Volagratis link to Blu-Express.com flights is direct, involving no third-party databases or systems.

“The savings for airlines here is remarkable,” said Novak Niketic, President of AirKiosk System and AirXML Service provider Sutra, Inc. “When an airline’s link to a travel site does not go through GDS processing, at least nine dollars per roundtrip ticket is eliminated,” he said.

Even more important, Niketic noted, is that airlines do not need to dedicate scarce resources to keeping intermediate systems such as OAG and ATPCO synchronized with daily fare changes driven by revenue management in the AirKiosk System.

Blue Panorama, Italy’s second largest long-haul carrier, launched the Blu-Express.com brand in November 2005 with the AirKiosk System as its solution for inventory, distribution and revenue management. Blu-express.com is the only low-cost airline based at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

The AirXML Service has become a major factor in travel distribution since its introduction in September 2006, directly connecting travel agency, corporate and special-interest websites with the realtime fares display and booking of airlines using the AirKiosk System.

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Sources: Sutra, Inc. and Blue Panorama Airlines S.p.A.

Expedia, AirKiosk System Link

February 23, 2009

Cheap fares from Rome, with Blu-express on Expedia.it

Flights of Blu-Express.com, the low-cost brand of Blue Panorama Airlines, are now available for sale through Expedia using an AirXML Service link between the popular travel booking site and the AirKiosk Internet Reservations System.

Blue Panorama Airlines organized the connection project, marking another milestone in its innovation of low-cost distribution strategies.

“We are very pleased with the launch of our AirKiosk AirXML link to Expedia,” said George Michalopoulos, Commercial Director of Blu-Express.com. “The AirXML API, which has become a cornerstone of our distribution strategy, once again has proven highly reliable and easy for customers to link to.”

Expedia developers took advantage of the full suite of AirXML API transactions – from realtime fares availability to direct electronic ticketing – to build the link, a process completed within 30 days.

The Expedia link to Blu-Express.com flights is direct, involving no third-party databases or systems.

“The savings for airlines here is remarkable,” said Novak Niketic, President of AirKiosk System and AirXML Service provider Sutra, Inc. “When an airline’s link to a travel site does not go through GDS processing, at least nine dollars per roundtrip ticket is eliminated,” he said.

Even more important, Niketic noted, is that airlines do not need to dedicate scarce resources to keeping intermediate systems such as OAG and ATPCO synchronized with daily fare changes driven by revenue management in the AirKiosk System.

Blue Panorama, Italy’s second largest long-haul carrier, launched the Blu-Express.com brand in November 2005 with the AirKiosk System as its solution for inventory, distribution and revenue management. Blu-express.com is the only low-cost airline based at Rome’s Fiumicino airport.

The AirXML Service has become a major factor in travel distribution since its introduction in September 2006, directly connecting travel agency, corporate and special-interest websites with the realtime fares display and booking of airlines using the AirKiosk System.

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Sources: Sutra, Inc. and Blue Panorama Airlines S.p.A.

AirXML Service Expands

August 12, 2007

			A sample of AirXML service links: Advanced Travel Partner Anite Mytravel.com CSI Media Cendent Clickwith Direct Travel Fleetway Travel Flightline Jetset Just The Flight OnHoliday Group Sunterra Thomas Cook Telme Travelink Wayfarers

New Travel Distribution Thrives on Direct Access to Schedules and Fares, Now in Bulk and Realtime

The AirXML Service for the realtime distribution of flights through modern sales channels — including corporate, agency and special-interest group websites — now allows the bulk download of schedule and fares.

The new AirXML API transaction allows travel package and fare consolidator websites to instantly build a local cache, on a daily basis, of an airline’s complete schedule and fares, replacing the “screen scraping” method to capture airline availability information. This (often prohibited) technique can take days for a simple snapshot of a single airline’s schedule and fares, only to result in the display of outdated information to travel shoppers.

The AirXML Service is a B2B link originally developed to support the following business objectives: seamless integration of data from a variety of airlines in a single front-end interface for a distinct user group, including corporate travel desks and travel agencies. development of applications targeting specific travelers or offering unique functions, such as integration with maps, offering a new generation of graphical user interfaces. additional revenue opportunity for websites serving specific visitor interests, such as sites promoting unique regions or tourism categories (nature lovers, skiers, students, et cetera).

Packaged holiday deals offered on the jet2holidays.com site, powered by AirXML API and service.

But a growing number of companies specialized in dynamic packaging of holidays and tours also require accurate airfare information. Dynamic packaging requires instant access to a large range of fares and flight information over an extensive period of time, which is poorly served by the rough screen scraping technique. The combination of the AirXML Service bulk schedule and fares download, with AirXML API realtime fares display and booking transactions, significantly enhances packaged travel sales and customer service.

Air travel booking for the holiday package site jet2holidays.com, which has reported record sales this summer ( Jet2.com announces record bookings) is provided through the AirXML Service.

In addition, public “Fare Consolidator” sites, which hope to serve visitors with useful airfare comparisons over a large range of airlines and dates, know that gathering this information through screen scraping is increasingly ineffective. The new AirXML API bulk download transaction provides an accurate daily snapshot of airline-supplied fares.

The AirXML Service has become a major factor in travel distribution since its launch in September 2006, connecting dozens of travel agency, corporate and special-interest websites with realtime fares display and booking of airlines using the AirKiosk Internet Reservations System. Individual AirKiosk system airlines may sponsor private links, offering special fares or promotions to their customers registered through the AirXML Service.

The AirXML Service is available to bona fide websites interested in promoting the flights offered by AirKiosk system airlines. For more information and to obtain the required access information and codes, please contact any AirKiosk system airline or contact Sutra, Inc. directly.

Sources: Sutra, Inc.