LCCs and travel agency partners soaring high as they continue to evolve

As LCCsevolve and pursue new growth opportunities and agencies accelerate LCC bookings with streamlined processes, Amadeus is right there with them every step of the way.

With 12 new LCCs signed and having reached a milestone of more than 100 LCC partners, 2017 has been another exceptional year of supporting LCCs and travel agents as they continue to evolve and work in new and innovative ways.

Let’s have a look at this year’s key milestones:

• LCC Best Practices: Our experts shared insights

  from the study Top 5 best practices for LCCs to be successful with travel agents. They highlighted the value of LCCs and agents working in partnership and achieved great results: 9% increase of LCC bookings YTD Oct 2017. Engaging in specific local adoption programmes was key to the success we’ve witnessed. See more in this video from Selectour – Bleu Voyages.

 

• Valuable insights: Did you know? LCCs can improve their revenue per available seat kilometre by distributing with OTAs. Our revenue management study shows that additional demand increases fares 2x as much it increases load factor

  for airlines.

 

• Enabling Digital Traffic Acquisition: Amadeus MetaConnect

  gives airlines innovative new ways to partner with metasearch sites attract customers to airline’s website and boost conversion rates.

 

• Partnering and expanding the network: Our Navitaire hosted carriers can now benefit from the  highest level of connectivity with partner agents using Altéa Reservation Gateway, while carriers like Eurowings

  and Thai Lion Aircontinue to expand their content and customer base with both our ticketing and unique light ticketing booking flows. And thanks to AirAsia connecting flights in XML travel agents can offer passengers a more convenient transfer from one flight to another within AirAsia Group without going through immigration offices.

 

We’re glad to book LCCs in Amadeus. It guarantees us proficiency in terms of time saving thanks to a unique entry point for the whole LCC world. Light Ticketing access modality is another added value for our operational aims. We’re looking forward to getting even more content in order to rely on a holistic booking platform. -  Massimo Gardinil, Industry Relations Director, Globe Travel

• Flexibility:

  this year, more than half of our agency interfaces became cloud-based using our Selling Platform Connect solution, meaning more real-time bookings and changes. Coupled with our commitment to open systems, this is another example of the ongoing work to enable innovation and flexibility in our IT platform.

 

• Beyond current standards:

  As an aggregator, we achieved IATA NDC Level 1 certification as an aggregator, and will achieve Level 3 certification, which is the highest level in 2018. Our first fully integrated XML connectivity to LCCs dates back 12 years. Now we’re looking beyond today’s XML standards and working with Navitaire on more intuitive, efficient and faster technology using JSON REST API.

 

As we move into 2018, we expect LCCs to continue working in partnership with agents, creating targeted, premium offers for travelers, exploring low cost long haulopportunities and interlining with new partners. We also expect agents to increase demand for LCC fares and services in response to their leisure and business traveler requests. In this digital age, we look forward to the evolutions ahead and working in new and innovative ways to the benefit of all players.