From idea to proof of concept in six weeks: Partnering to accelerate innovation for airlines

Relentless competition from digital disruptors drives the need for memorable customer journeys and powerful loyalty programs. And airlines are pressed to improve their traveler experiences right from the point of inspiration until the very end of the trip.  

In short, everyone in the industry is being asked to innovate more rapidly than ever to meet their customers’ ever-increasing expectations. Against this backdrop, Amadeus worked with Celerity to help airlines make that happen by providing pre-built plug-ins on the Amadeus Digital Experience Suite.

This relationship goes back a few years though. Amadeus and AUSY Group, a consulting and engineering firm in advanced technologies and Celerity’s parent company, have been working together since 2005. At a customer forum in 2018, Amadeus customers indicated a need for an application that would enable their travelers to compare multiple flights without leaving their website. They wanted to build loyalty, drive the travel experience, and combat competition from third-party price-comparing travel sites. So Amadeus turned to their long-time partner for a solution.

With Celerity’s advanced technology, agile development skills, and established industry expertise, we developed the first offering for the Amadeus Digital Experience Suite, Avia Flight Compare. This product allows travelers to compare prices in the same window, save and share itineraries, receive alerts, view and buy added services, and evaluate all options without ever leaving the website. Ultimately, it will boost conversions, lower customer acquisition costs and unlock more upsell and cross-sell opportunities for airlines. And when we talk about rapid innovation, we mean it. In the space of 6 weeks we went from idea to proof of concept. Avia Flight Compare is now in production and available to Amadeus Airline Digital clients.

Part of what makes such rapid development possible is the strategy behind the Amadeus Digital Experience Suite. The suite is an open marketplace for airlines to access custom branded apps built by Amadeus partners like Celerity, accelerating innovation and decreasing time to value.

"Travelers crave personalized, memorable experiences and are demanding to interact with airline brands in new ways. Our partnership with Celerity on Amadeus’ digital marketplace is a very real embodiment of Amadeus’ ‘simple, agile, open’ approach that we saw at the Airline Executive Summit in Istanbul earlier this summer, partnering with a range of experts to build better solutions for carriers and a better experience for passengers.” - Karin Dodson, Head of Partnerships, Airline Digital Solutions

Delivering innovation quickly to airlines is critical in today’s environment of rapid change and disruption. We want to ensure that Amadeus customers are able to respond quickly and make disruption irrelevant in order to reinforce travelers’ loyalty in their favorite airline brand.