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Flyers Deserve More: Prepare for a Big Take-off with New Distribution Capability

Smriti Kumar, Co-Founder, Airlines Technology
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Smriti Kumar, Co-Founder, Airlines Technology
Headquartered in Gurgaon, Airlines Technology is a travel technology company providing New Distribution Capability (NDC) based IT solution and services to airlines, travel agents and 3rd party vendors in travel industry.

Today, when a traveller logs on to any online travel agent website, he punches destination city, origin city along with travel dates and gets results. 99 percent of us will choose best possible fare and move on. But in this process, we always miss out to understand which flight was actually best suited for us, which one had best meal, or may have missed on free upgrade or possible utilization of frequent flyer miles.

As per IATA, 60 percent of Airlines reservations are managed through travel agents using Global Distribution Systems, and airlines pay hefty fees for them. This traditional distribution model is finding it difficult to keep pace with 'digitally aware' travellers. The model offers price-based comparison irrespective of traveller's relationship with the airline, thereby commoditizing the entire shopping process. Customers remain unknown to airlines until a transaction takes place. Thus, it is impossible for an airline to customize its offers for customers via indirect channels.

Airlines right now are not able to sell any ancillary services (wifi, food, lounge, preferred seats, or boarding) on online travel agent (OTA) portal. This results in huge revenue and opportunity loss for airlines. Consumers also don't know what they deserve. They see only fares and schedule (time of flight) on OTA portal and have to make choice from that.

Due to technical limitations in existing eco system, travel agents do not have access to onboard offers and services of Airlines and are not able to execute the complete ticketing process (Booking, Modifications and Cancellation). Travellers don't understand if two flights are offering same or similar price, or which one will suit the traveller's needs best.


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