Keeping one step ahead of the game: Why continued investment in Altéa is paying off

Incredibly,Altéais only 10 years old, and yet it has become the solution of reference within the global passenger service system industry. Why is this? The simple answer is continued investment. This has enabled us to add more modules, solutions, features and services to Altéa in response to evolving airline and passenger needs. Furthermore, our commitment to maintaining Altéa's position as market leaders today and in the future, gives our customers confidence that we are a reliable IT partner.

Increase revenues and margins

Making a profit is essential to the survival of any airline. So how are we supporting airlines with this?

1) Yield management – Airline seats are like oranges, they have a limited life span. Once a flight takes off, seats can no longer be sold. Add to this, the multitude of alternatives available to travellers (different flight times, connections etc.) and it is easy to see why selling every seat at the best possible price is a complex science. The industry has developed sophisticated tools to manage availability calculations, which include real-time availability and revenue management solutions. This is an area of excellence forAltéa Inventoryand a strategic business diversification forAltéa Revenue Management.

2) Merchandising – For an increasing number of airlines, ancillary service revenues make the difference between generating a profit and making a loss. They include charging for add-on services such as emergency exit seats, baggage fees, premium meals, and lounge access. Ancillary services must offer commercial flexibility, be available across all channels, redeemable against miles and delivered seamlessly to the customer. Looking beyond 2013, our strategy will shift from core enablement to maximising every airline merchandising opportunity.

To deliver dynamic and personalised offers, airlines need to fully understand 'who' they are targeting in order achieve maximum sales conversion and facilitate differentiation. Improved ancillary offers will include fare families, enriched customer handling, and the ability to push relevant offers and service packages proactively. Amadeus is leading the industry in this area with Altéa and the multichannel solutions that serve both airline direct and travel agency channels, and is continuing to roll out increased options for EMD and ancillary service solutions. The industry standard electronic document, EMD, is integrated with Amadeus Ancillary Services across all channels and the combination enables airlines to generate and retain additional ancillary revenues.

3) Revenue protection – Enhancing revenue integrity functionality towards real-time operations will enable non-confirmed seats to be released faster for sale. The Payments Business Unit, through a solid partnership network, offers a robust Payment Platform that is customised for travel. It provides end to end payment services, from authentication to reconciliation, for cards and other alternative methods of payment worldwide. We have also launched the brand new and state-of-the-artAmadeus Passenger Revenue Accountingsolution which, in addition to all industry revenue accounting processes, provides real-time revenue recognition and facilitates settlement across airline partners and alliances.

SeePart 2 of our insightsinto the rest of the main areas of focus where we concentrate our resources and investment.