ai-for-airlines

All-New GroupRM’s AI-Capabilities To Deliver Dynamic & Personalized Group Bookings For Airlines

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India- February 28, 2022—Using the newly updated GroupRM, airlines are all set to anticipate changes in passenger demand better, adjust the pricing accordingly, and maximize their revenue.

The cloud-based group revenue management software has long been the go-to solution for airlines to maximize revenue lift and boost growth, given that it delivers accurate demand forecasting and optimal fares. However, with the pandemic ravaging the airline sector for two years, historical data has become unreliable to predict group fares. In the current climate, where corporate travel—a major driver of group revenue—has been all but wiped out, airlines needed an AI-powered solution to calculate the conversion rate at different price points using real-time demand data and identify the highest price the customer is willing to pay without affecting the conversion rates.

GroupRM updates allow it to do this and so much more. For example, the group revenue analyst can now foresee group demand and make quick decisions based on the forecast. The software further allows airlines to provide personalized ancillaries, cater to multiple customer segments, and consequently grow their revenue. At a virtual conference for GroupRM customers, Mr. Ananth Narasimhan— the CEO of Infiniti Software Solutions, the company behind GroupRM— observed that providing customers with a “shopping experience” with instant quotes and real-time pricing would allow airlines to improve the end-to-end group travel booking experience.

Moreover, moving up the value chain by providing ancillaries, such as COVID-19 insurance, premium baggage claims, car rentals, hotel bookings, etc., would serve as a foundation for post-pandemic recovery. Another key trend is redefining what it means to make a group sale. GroupRM allows airlines to consider anything over two passengers as a group request and make accurate forecasts of the materialization rate based on current market pickup.

To facilitate digital transformation in the aviation sector moving forward, GroupRM allows airlines to automate the sales process fully, facilitates self-service using AI chatbots, and allows travel agents to upload and manage multiple group booking requests at the click of a button. Crucially, the series booking capabilities will go a long way in helping airlines provide seats in advance to travel agents and increase the flights’ load factor.

Even though the sector has taken a massive hit, airlines’ embrace of digitization, AI/ML, the redefining of group sales, and the emphasis on hyper-personalization are all signs that a recovery is on its way. When passengers return en masse, these new developments will pave the way for sustainable and profitable recovery from the turbulence caused by the pandemic.

Emerging Stronger From The Pandemic

However, airlines need to look for an implementation partner with experience and expertise in new-age group revenue management. The GroupRM team fits the bill, thanks to its solution’s integration with the leading reservation systems, including Navitaire, Amadeus, and Sabre, new-age features, and stellar track record of quick Return on Investment (ROI) that will give airlines a decisive advantage in their digital transformation journey.

If you are interested in knowing how GroupRM will help you, schedule a demo at https://www.grouprm.net/

How-Airlines-Can-Bolster-Group-Booking-Revenue-by-Providing-a-Compelling-Shopping-Experience

How Airlines Can Bolster Group Booking Revenue By Providing A Compelling Shopping Experience

Every group request that reaches the airline sales desk is unique, but they all must go through the same gruelling and manual process to get their tickets confirmed. 

What ensues is countless hours wasted for the airline and the customers, both retail and travel agents, who end up choosing another airline. About 81% of passengers reported they pick the airline that comes up with the fastest quote. 

As a result, group booking customers abandoning their booking midway is a serious issue that costs airlines millions. 

Passengers are also more likely to stick with airlines that offer them the ability to customize their group booking requests with ancillaries, payment methods, etc. 

Even those who take the flight end up dissatisfied due to the various customization challenges in the manual group booking process and pick another carrier.

So, it turns out providing a truly digital customer experience for group booking passengers is the way to go when it comes to increasing airline revenue, as travel volumes pick up around the world. 

The bane of manual, less exciting, and inflexible group booking processes

Notably, the group booking process hasn’t changed much in the last decade, primarily because airlines have not seen group bookings as the true powerhouse of revenue generation that they are. 

Group requests—whether they are ad-hoc requests from retail customers, series requests from travel agents, or MICE (meetings, incentives, conferencing & exhibition) based requests from corporates, wedding planners, event organizers, etc.— all have the potential to increase airline load factor and the bottom-line as well. 

But optimizing group revenue has been an arduous task for airlines.

This has largely been the case due to group bookings’ unappealing and tiring nature. 

Customers typically place a group request on the airline website and wait for a week to get a quote. Then comes the cumbersome process of negotiating the group fares via phone or email. 

Add the hurdles associated with customizing each ticket in the group request with ancillaries, class, etc., and you end up with a process that will turn even the most patient of people away from the booking process.

It doesn’t stop there; passengers must wait for a few more days for the payments to go through and generate the PNR. 

Then, to make matters exponentially worse, the manual process presents a huge hurdle for groups that need to change aspects of the booking, such as the number of tickets, passenger name, etc. 

The transformative power of “the shopping experience”

Just as Amazon and Netflix have transformed their respective spaces by providing an AI-driven shopping experience, airlines can make the process of group booking a delightful experience that also brings in optimal revenue. 

Airlines need to start by using an automated group booking solution that allows customers to make different group requests. 

For instance, a travel agent who wants 10 tickets to London from Paris every Wednesday for the next three months will have vastly different needs than a corporation that wants to treat its board members to a week-long paid vacation in the Bahamas.

When airlines provide customized booking options to different groups, they will undoubtedly see a consistent spike in revenue, just as a Southeast Asian airline saw a whopping growth in revenue from 0 to $1.5M in 3 months from retail groups alone. 

Ideally, airlines also need to allow customers to have unique group policies, such as the time required for updating passenger names, changes to the number of tickets, the time to be taken for making payments, etc.

Another way airlines can provide a memorable shopping experience for customers is by providing quotes in real-time using AI, in the same way, that you get a quote when you place something in your Amazon shopping cart. The group booking solution’s algorithm will ensure that the quote is optimal after considering crucial factors, including competitor fares, customer buying behavior, load factor, etc. This ability to offer dynamic pricing has improved the group fare of low load factor flights by 2%. 

It is worth mentioning that customers will be able to negotiate and make the entire booking through a single portal, instead of sending countless emails and calling up the sales team many times, only to hear from a different person each time. 

Revenue optimization doesn’t have to stop here. Just as Amazon and Alibaba, and other shopping websites throw up personalized recommendations when customers are ready to checkout, airlines can present customers with ancillaries that add to their bottom line.

Group booking solutions can further allow ancillary customization for each passenger in the group request, such as lounge access, travel insurance, Wi-Fi, food, etc., prioritizing customer experience. 

What’s more, customers can provide their names to the airline directly and have their tickets issued automatically to them, rather than waiting for all the others in the group to confirm that they’re taking the trip. Undoubtedly, this will remove the hassle of raising name change requests manually through a single person in contact with the airline. 

Crucially, airlines will also be able to fill more seats and improve revenue substantially with the automated follow-up feature for both payments and updating the names of passengers. 

Conclusion

Group bookings are a vastly untapped market, so airlines that are first to realize the importance of automating the process and providing a shopping experience for customers stand to gain a lot in the coming years.

With GroupRM, airlines have observed group materialization rates skyrocketing by 50%. If you are interested in knowing more about how GroupRM will help you retain more group passengers by providing them a seamless booking experience, Reach us for a demo

Reinventing-series-booking-for-airlines-through-automation-6

Reinventing Series Booking For Airlines Through Automation

For airlines looking to increase operating revenue and get consistent business, series bookings from travel agents have emerged as a source of delight.

Now, what are series bookings?

Essentially, if a travel agent or tour operator wants 20 tickets from London to Spain every Saturday for the entirety of the football season, it is considered a series booking.

With series bookings, travel agents no longer have to go through the hassle of making multiple group bookings every time they want to fly their customers to a particular location in a recurring fashion, say every weekend.

At this juncture, when airlines have begun prioritizing the generation of consistent revenue to operate their flights, automating, and making the series booking process seamless can be a gamechanger.

The pains of navigating a flawed series booking process

Before the series booking is finalized, the travel agent would have spent hours or even days on email threads or the phone, explaining the requirement to the group desk. Usually, the travel agent must fill out countless passenger details in the outdated reservation systems of airlines or work on time-consuming spreadsheets to be emailed to the airline sales team.

In both these cases, the airline must spend tons of hours calculating the fare with all the relevant factors in consideration in a highly error-prone process.

The travel agents must then wait for days to get status updates on each group booking within the series booking request. Subsequently, the travel agent must go through each of the group fares and reach out to the group desk team of the airline to painstakingly negotiate all aspects of the series booking quote.

 Often, by the time the negotiations for each ticket are through, the flight fare would’ve already changed.

There is also no mechanism for the travel agent to partially accept, reject, or negotiate the fares.

 Since groups are complex and unpredictable, they require constant changes in terms of schedule, number of people, etc., which is another painful process for the travel agents and the airline.

Automating series booking—a win-win for airlines and travel agents

The process of series booking needs to be streamlined every step of the way.

 Airlines can provide travel agents with a dedicated booking portal to raise series requests with a few clicks using an automation solution.

 They can enter the number of seats they want, the origin & destination, and the price they are willing to pay for the seats. Then, the system automatically comes up with a fare that the travel agent can accept or reject.

 Crucially, the travel agent can even accept parts of the series booking quote and negotiate the rest of the groups’ fares with the airline based on their budget or the ability to get a better deal elsewhere.

 It is worth mentioning that travel agents can make whatever changes they want to the bookings with just a few clicks. Additionally, the travel agent can make the payment right away or pay a small upfront amount.

Either way, the airline gets a significant amount of money that it can use for its operations, along with the guarantee that the flights will be reasonably filled. 

 A great advantage for airlines is that since the quote is generated automatically and instantaneously as the travel agent enters their requirements, there is no room for error.

 Most importantly, if airlines see that the travel agent has declined their quote, they can have their revenue management team reach out manually and provide a fare that will help retain the travel agent’s business. This means that the group desk can focus exclusively on such high-yielding tasks rather than unproductive manual labor, such as following up on emails.

 Moreover, airlines can keep close track of the request history of various travel agents to provide customized promotions that fit the goals of both the sales and revenue management teams.

Conclusion

Automating series booking will pay off in both the short and long term because it saves time and resources for all the stakeholders. In the short term, it provides operating revenue for the airline, and over the long term, they don’t have to face an increase in manual labor for processing series bookings when the number of fleets increases.

GroupRM has played a vital role in many airlines’ efforts to bring in consistent revenue and contribute to their flights having a load factor that makes the trip worthwhile by making series booking a seamless and error-free process. As a result, numerous airlines, especially in the Asian markets, have brought down the average turnaround time per series booking using our solution. 

To know more, Reach us for a demo or book a demo with the sales team at https://www.grouprm.net/.