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

by with No Comment Blogs

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

by with No Comment Blogs

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/. 

3-Tips-for-Exceptional-Group

3 Tips For Exceptional Group Sales Experience That Retains More Passengers

by with No Comment Blogs

Airlines have their work cut out as people worldwide make frenzied travel plans to shake off the misery of the pandemic-induced lockdowns. To benefit from the burgeoning demand for group travel, airlines need to digitize and make the entire process of group booking and pricing pain-free. 

This means that the days of customers emailing the sales team, waiting for days on end for a quote as the sales and revenue management team tussle over optimal pricing, and finally getting an unsatisfactory deal need to be over if airlines ever hope to recover from the pandemic. 

Here, we explore how airlines can start treating group sales as a mission-critical aspect of their operations and provide a booking experience that leads to higher revenue and passenger retention. 

Invest in an intelligent group revenue management solution

Over 60% of group booking business goes to airlines that send the quickest quote. With manual group sales processes, airlines usually spend 5-6 days coming up with a quote that is satisfactory for both the sales and revenue management team. 

Consequently, airlines need an end to end, automated booking solution that can generate instant quotes (based on passenger willingness to pay, market demand & competitor pricing) and contracts while also ensuring airline policy compliance in group bookings across all users, including internal sales team, revenue managers, and travel agents. 

Further, look for a solution to automate bookings, approval, and even the ticketing process for group travel requests across every sales channel. 

Notably, the solution should allow bookings and contracts to be managed in one place to facilitate changes to Passenger Name Records (PNRs). 

Ensure a frictionless user experience

Travel agents and other users who depend on your booking solution need to have a seamless experience with it. Airlines can achieve this using a digital booking solution that eliminates the need for manual review of group bookings, delivers real-time alerts related to the booking, automates contract generation, enables easy payment tracking, and allows users to book tickets based on group/ trip type. Real-time, data-driven recommendations to users is another way to enhance their experience and boost revenue through the sale of ancillaries. 

Prioritize relationships

Ensure that your group sales management solution allows you to effectively manage the relationships between stakeholders, such as travel agents, internal sales teams, and revenue managers. 

Crucially, the solution should allow travel agency level rules to be set up and managed, facilitating trust between sales and revenue teams by ensuring that the group pricing aligns with their goals.

Moreover, airlines can foster transparency between revenue management and sales with a solution that allows both teams to manage group pricing and policies from the same location. 

Apart from this, airlines should use a tool that provides real-time price comparisons so that customers don’t cancel contracts. Leveraging a tool that can track metrics, such as individual customers’ conversion and materialization rate, will also go a long way in facilitating a better relationship between the airline and its group passengers. 

Conclusion 

Group sales account for 5-10% of airline revenue, and in some regions, it is even more than that. Given that corporate travel and tourism is making a comeback with relaxed covid restrictions worldwide, it is time for airlines to invest in an intelligent booking and pricing solution that takes away the pain of group bookings. 

The need of the hour is GroupRM. Its automated itinerary building & relationship-building capabilities, intuitive user interface, and intelligent pricing will keep you ahead of the competition. 

Reach us for a demo / consultation. 

How-Automated-Group-Revenue-Management

How Automated Group Revenue Management Can Fuel Airline Recovery

by with No Comment Blogs

Airlines are increasingly flooded with group booking requests, and there is every reason to believe these valuable revenue-generating opportunities are squandered.

All thanks to legacy systems that include an outdated help desk and an overburdened revenue management team.

The group revenue management process is among the last areas airlines are yet to optimize by leveraging the latest technology, and the results are telling.

Travel is returning to its pre-pandemic highs, but airlines are still struggling to find a footing by differentiating themselves from their competitors with dynamic, transparent group pricing and exceptional customer experience. 

Reinventing group revenue management—the way out of the pandemic and beyond

Taking a group booking request and turning it into a source of revenue growth and customer satisfaction requires that an airline is on point with every aspect of the group booking.

Unfortunately, most airlines are in no position to pull off this feat.  

This reality warrants the reinvention of group revenue management via a next-generation tool powered by AI, GroupRM.  

Here is what GroupRM offers that will make you stand out from all your competitors and enable your airline to generate the best possible amount of revenue from group bookings.

GroupRM benefits for soaring airline revenue

Optimal prices delivered at the earliest and to the right groups

One of the biggest pain points of group booking customers, whether travel agents or retail customers, is the seemingly arbitrary pricing.  

This misunderstanding happens because the flight prices would have changed several times before the airline came up with a quote, many days after the group booking request came in.

Doing away with all this hassle for the customer and airline, GroupRM automatically generates the best possible price for the group instantaneously and sends a quote.

The customer can then negotiate for better group rates with the revenue management team, which would provide the former with a sense of control over the pricing that wouldn’t be possible if the airline came back with random prices after wasting tons of the customer’s time.

Another striking ability of GroupRM is the capacity to identify high yield groups based on historical analysis to deliver the best possible pricing

As a direct result of the automation, the airline is guaranteed better fares, higher group conversion rates, and more revenue.

Unified platform for seamless booking, negotiating, finalizing, and tracking of group requests

Retail customers, travel agents, group desk analysts, corporate travel managers, airline salesforce—wherever the group requests come from—have a single, easy-to-use interface to request a group booking.  

The booking is processed and evaluated by the airline right away, considering the historical buying behavior of the group, load factor, and competitor’s rate.

Through the same platform, customers can negotiate special rates with the airline in a transparent manner.

Supercharge helpdesk productivity

Generating quotes based on current prices, sending reminders for making payments, deciding the best pricing strategy, and checking for policy compliance in the booking are all tasks that can be automated. 

GroupRM takes care of the automation so that the revenue management team can focus on more revenue-generating tasks, such as negotiating and finalizing the best group prices.

Discover new revenue streams and optimize existing ones

Using GroupRM, airlines have the unique opportunity to run sales campaigns for high yield tickets after considering industry standards and competitor pricing.

Owing to the custom offer management capabilities that GroupRM provides, airlines can also optimize revenue by cross-selling ancillaries and providing personalized discounts.

Further, airlines can prevent revenue leakage with consistent reminders to customers for payments and for updating the name lists through the customer’s preferred channel. Notably, the GroupRM tool takes convenience to another level by allowing customers to pay in the mode of choice.

No more friction between sales and revenue management

The GroupRM team conducted a poll of airline sales and revenue professionals, and we got hard evidence for something we’d already sensed was happening; there are huge conflicts regarding group pricing.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6848907435424542720/

With software like GroupRM, there won’t be any more friction between revenue management and sales; the group policy enforcement is automatic and centralized, meaning both sales and revenue management can rest assured that their pricing policies have been met. 

Since everything is done transparently, any escalation between the customers, sales, and revenue teams can be resolved efficiently. 

Conclusion 

GroupRM has led the way, processing millions of group requests each year that make both the sales and revenue management teams of airlines happy, with fully booked flights of high yield passengers. Further, travel agents throng the airlines implementing our solution, thanks to how they can get the best group booking deals for clients at lightning speed. 

To know how your airline can join the league of high revenue growth airlines that also delight customers, reach us for a GroupRM demo/ consultation with an airline revenue maximization expert. 

Airlines-recovery-path

Airline’s Recovery Path To Profitability After The Pandemic – Reduced Distribution Cost And Increased Ancillary Revenue

by with No Comment Blogs

After months of lockdowns and travel curbs, the aviation sector is on the path to recovery, but profitability seems to be out of reach for many airlines. Airlines are especially finding it hard to fill seats due to many passengers’ hesitancy to board flights (only 61% of passengers are comfortable flying in the next six months). 

Further, airlines must combat unreasonably high distribution costs, which are among their most significant expenses, thanks to the oligopoly of the three most prominent GDS companies. To make matters worse, ancillary sales, an important revenue driver, have fallen by 73% year on year.

Consequently, airlines’ chances of returning to pre-pandemic levels of profitability will depend entirely on whether they can drastically cut distribution costs and come up with ancillaries that passengers will care about in the era of COVID. 

As you read on, you will find out exactly how airlines can go about achieving this. 

The value proposition of NDC

The New Distribution Capability (NDC), an XML-based standard for data transmission, put forward by the IATA, can disrupt the vice-like control that the major GDS companies have on airline distribution.

By letting airlines control their offer, ticketing, and settlement processes without the GDS across all channels, NDC enables them to cut costs significantly. Moreover, if airlines partner with multiple NDC aggregators globally, competition between the aggregators will bring down distribution costs to around $ 2-4 instead of the $14 – 25 that airlines are currently spending. 

In addition to this, airlines can cut back on distribution costs with an automated group revenue management solution that ensures that group bookings are made in a manner that brings in the most revenue while spending the least possible amount on distribution. 

There is also the option of partnering with various governments to serve as the official carrier of the nation. This means that without any indirect and expensive distribution channel, you can reach hundreds of high-yield passengers.

Boosting revenue with ancillaries

Ancillary sales are way down now that customer priorities have changed. Mainly, passengers are looking for safety from covid, personalization, and great value for money. As a result, the ancillaries you offer need to reflect these realities. 

For instance, many airlines have found great success by offering comprehensive covid insurance covering quarantine, telemedicine, screening, etc., if passengers test positive for the virus. Also, you can make it a point to offer immunity-boosting kits and baggage wrapping for enhanced protection from the infection.  

Notably, you can offer passengers the ability to book the seats next to them to ensure social distancing. 

Another ancillary that passengers will be delighted by is the ability to cancel free of charge if they catch covid.

Meanwhile, your corporate passengers can benefit from Wi-Fi, easy seat upgrades, access to business lounges, shuttle service to their destination from the airport, etc.

With tourists, a surefire way to boost revenue is by offering fully packaged trips to places, such as religious destinations. Specifically, you can provide food, hotel bookings, car rentals, bus services, etc., which will enhance your profit margins.  

Airlines can further offer ancillaries, such as relaxation and well-being packages, given how people have endured a lot of stress and trauma during the pandemic

Conclusion 

There is a lot of uncertainty ahead regarding when passengers will regain confidence in traveling. However, by following the double-pronged approach of bringing down distribution costs and boosting ancillary sales with personalized offers, airlines can return to profitability in no time. 

If your airline needs an IT partner for implementing Direct Distribution Solution or any Consultancy to generate the maximum possible revenue from every seat, reach us at marketing@infinitisoftware.net 

Who-should-control-the-group

Who Should Control The Group Sales For An Airline – Sales Or Revenue Management?

by with No Comment Blogs

Whenever a request comes in for a group booking, it is common to find sales and revenue management at loggerheads.  

Airlines generally handle group bookings manually, and in the process, confusion breaks out over whether the group’s accommodation on their preferred flight is in alignment with the airline’s revenue maximization efforts. 

Another conflict that arises is the discounts that can be given to a particular group. In this instance, the sales team looks to fill up the flight with substantial discounts, while revenue management might want to hold out for higher yield passengers.  

Making these decisions manually has made group booking a tedious process for both passengers and airlines, which means that airlines are missing out on a major opportunity to boost revenue.

What if there was a way to automate the entire process of group booking that ensured the flight was filled with high-value passengers? 

Also, what if there was a way for the sales team and revenue management to work together to adopt the best pricing strategy based on demand and the previous buying pattern of the passengers? 

How automating group booking can work wonders

Airlines can manage inventory effectively and fill their plane with the most valuable customers if they had access to a single, web-based interface for accepting and managing group requests, deciding the fare based on demand, and negotiating for providing customers with competitive pricing.  

Here are the benefits of having such a solution. 

Providing the right fares to the right groups

With the dynamic pricing capability that an automated group revenue management system provides, airlines can come up with optimal quotes in a matter of hours depending on group size, load factor, demand, nature of the trip, requested fare, etc. 

With the sales and revenue management teams in sync when it comes to policies that affect offers, the airline can also present travel agents and tour operators with personalized offers in real-time.

Making timely pricing decisions

Since customers have a lot of options in the market, they have immense leverage for negotiating fares. Airlines need to keep constant track of competitor rates and customer history to keep potential passengers from switching. 

When the process of pricing is automated, airlines can make optimized and timely decisions on everything from discounts to surge fees based on the season and sector. 

This leads to more customer retention because the long quoting times associated with manual processes inevitably lead to lost sales.  

Selling to the right group at the right time

Automation goes a long way in helping airlines prioritize which groups to cater to for maximizing revenue, especially when hundreds of group booking requests pour in. 

With the right tools, airlines can accelerate the group sales cycle, close negotiations much faster, and even boost customer spend with personalized pricing and product offers. 

Conclusion 

Increasingly, customers want better prices and more specialized offers with group bookings. Using an automated group revenue management tool, airlines can eliminate nearly all the conflict between the sales and revenue management teams and make smarter pricing decisions that fuel a faster recovery from the pandemic. This is because having a single source of data allows both sales and revenue management to collaborate in ways that will foster efficiency and better customer experience. 

Check-In Counter of An Airline - A Blog Banner for the Future of Customer Segmentation

Customer Segmented Distribution – The Future Of Airline Distribution

by with No Comment Blogs

For airlines around the world, developing a comprehensive, 360-degree view of their customers is vital. As the travel industry limps back to normal after a couple of years of travel curbs, airlines will benefit massively if they can figure out what triggers an individual’s purchasing decisions. 

To do this, and turn customers into assets, airlines need to create and cater to segments based on value, behavior, and needs. 

Enhancing the travel experience through segmentation 

For everyone from corporate customers to retail customers to large packs of tourists, airlines can apply segmentation to provide optimal fares, offers, and ancillaries. The segmentation can be based on anything; flying frequency, demographics, etc. are all considerations.

But how does such segmentation help airlines to the extent that it is embraced as the future of airline distribution?

Maximizing the revenue from retail customers

Retail customers are generally low yield fliers but viewing them as a segment with specific needs will go a long way in maximizing the returns from each seat. The key is ancillaries, such as food options, drinks, covid insurance, etc. 

Within retail customers, you can have segments based on paying capabilities, which is an approach that has been successful for Delta Airlines and many others. Notably, Delta managed to offer enhanced personalization with the help of products, such as Delta’s Economy Plus, which targets affluent couples.

To optimize its revenue, the airline tailored its NDC content, pricing, and retailing channel based on the requirements of the target group.

Making the most out of corporate travel

Generally, corporate customers don’t mind surge fees for late bookings, and they will also prefer to fly with comforts, such as priority boarding, checked bags, onboard meals, etc. Some airlines even provide Wi-Fi and business lounges for this passenger segment. 

With highly granular segmentation and insights from customer behavior, airlines can further provide business travelers with stellar customer service. For instance, when the airline knows that someone is a business passenger, they can offer easy flight cancellations, seat upgrades, and notifications during disruptions, which will go a long way in bolstering customer retention. 

Taking advantage of group bookings

Tourists, religious pilgrims, corporate group bookings, and mass requests from travel agents can all be treated as different segments that airlines can take advantage of with personalized pricing and product offers.

Flights like Malaysian Airlines have dedicated Hajj trips with flights that serve only specific meals that are consistent with the occasion, have prayers onboard at the prescribed times, etc. This has been a huge revenue generator for the airline. 

Further, travel agents may look for discounts in exchange for a large number of ticket bookings that will come in consistently every month. Airlines can make use of demand forecasting and seasonal tourism data to provide optimal pricing for them.

Apart from this, companies that have employees traveling in large numbers can be served with loyalty programs, access to premium business lounges, etc. 

A surprisingly underrated passenger segment 

In many countries, governments mandate their employees to only travel on their national carrier. This can be a lucrative segment for airlines if they can provide the government employees with a dedicated portal for bookings, cancellations, and unlocking rewards for flying frequently. 

NDC-enabled merchandizing 

As NDC adoption takes off, airlines can also segment customers based on shopping data and customer intent. Enhancing the NDC-shopping experience will go a long way in helping airlines enhance the conversion rate and customer experience. Moreover, this allows the airline to keep customer needs at the center while designing future products, bundling fares, and making marketing decisions.  

Conclusion 

Not all passengers are the same. As air travel becomes increasingly common, airlines need to figure out how to effectively cater to nearly 3 billion passengers from different backgrounds. With customer analytics, airlines can successfully implement value-based segmentation and consequently boost profits.  If you are looking for a solution that can handle customer segmentation for you and provide you with actionable insights on how to cater to them for optimal revenue, reach us atmarketing@infinitisoftware.net 

Passengers in the Lounge That Illustrates How Airlines Can Give Travel Experiences with GroupRM

How Can Airlines Move Up The Value Chain And Provide Travel Experiences?

by with No Comment Blogs

Airlines are constantly looking for new revenue streams that win them loyal passengers. Given how the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the travel sector, it has become even more important for airlines to look beyond ticket sales to run profitably.

Increasingly, airlines have found that the modern traveler—with dozens of choices to pick from—prefers an all-around satisfactory travel experience rather than a few customizations. 

This reality means that airlines need to quickly adapt, moving up the value chain to provide wholesome travel experiences that passengers can cherish for a lifetime.

Here are just a few ways of ensuring that.

Personalizing flights

Nearly nothing enhances a passenger’s experiences on a flight than a hot meal, snack, or drink served by a friendly member of the flight crew.

Airlines like Austrian Airlines and Alaska Airlines allow passengers to order food on their smartphone while others, such as Virgin America, Norwegian, Azul, etc. have kicked things up a notch by letting passengers order drinks and food through the in-flight entertainment system.

Airlines can further provide business travelers with the option of accessing Wi-Fi and business lounges, thanks to the New Distribution Capability that allows airlines to sell using rich data. For tourists and other retail customers, airlines can provide on-demand video options at the push of a button, which will serve to enhance the travel experience.

With airline chatbots, you now even have the option of making the process of booking delightful. Based on past booking and the conversation up to a point, you can have AI-powered chatbots providing recommendations that resonate with the passenger.

Superior loyalty benefits

Proving loyalty benefits can be a great way to boost corporate bookings and even retail ticket sales. You can tap into the goldmine of data that you have at your disposal and make sure that loyal passengers have all their needs attended to without even having to ask.

Customization is key here; you need to make sure that you provide the right incentive to the right person who is most likely to appreciate the entertainment, lodging, food, or transport offers you provide them with.

Travel packages that resonate with the target audience

If your airline provides tours to religious sites, such as the Holy Land, Hajj, etc., or even generally cater to tourists, it would be a great idea to partner with service provides like hotels and tour operators. Doing this will ensure that airlines can generate revenue from the whole trip rather than only selling tickets.

Most importantly, it will make life easier for passengers, as they can have their entire trip’s needs met in one place.

Given that layovers can be frustrating, airlines also can provide passengers with the ability to pre-order food.

Providing this level of personalization and seamless travel experience will undoubtedly lead to passengers choosing your airline the next time they decide to fly.

Localized services

Even when passengers have left the airport, airlines have the opportunity of serving them with GPS-enabled apps that can point the person to local hotels, car rentals, etc. operated by partners.

Also, based on where the person is located, airlines can provide them with relevant offers, promotions, and rewards.

Offering this level of service can go a long way in leaving a lasting impression on the mind of the passenger, making your airline their first choice when they want to travel.

The use of beacons

Beacons, which are portable and wireless devices installed at airports, have great potential for enhancing the passenger experience. They essentially interact with nearby mobile devices to provide passengers with personalized welcome messages, flight confirmation information, and also details regarding the gate to head to.

Conclusion 

For emerging out of the pandemic in good shape, airlines need to focus incessantly on making air travel a memorable experience. As a result, they need to lose the ticket seller mentality and move even beyond traditional ancillary products and sell more experience-oriented products based on user behavior.  

Airline Plan with Three Layers at the Back - Blog Banner - Relevance Of O&D Bid Price-Based Revenue Management In Post-Covid Era

Relevance Of O&D Bid Price-Based Revenue Management In Post Covid Era

by with No Comment Blogs

It is no secret that before the pandemic, the airline sector was booming. Companies were constantly expanding their travel budgets, and airlines took full advantage of executives with deep pockets to turn in consistent profits. Further, tourists thronged various hot destinations around the world. In 2019 alone, some 1.5 billion tourist arrivals were recorded internationally, and this effectively meant that international tourism growth outpaced the global economy.

A huge driver of these profits was the fact that airlines had become masters at leveraging historical data to forecast demand to determine seat availability and price in a way that delivered optimal profits. 

But this all changed in the early months of 2020 when the covid pandemic prompted governments to shut their borders and set up numerous travel restrictions that brought the travel industry to a screeching halt. 

The non-viability of O&D bid price-based revenue management

As the pandemic took hold of the world, airlines found, to their dismay, that the O&D systems that had set them back by anywhere between $100,000 to $10, 000, 000, had ceased to be useful.

Border shutdowns, lockdowns, and curfews across the world were forcing passengers to take direct flights rather than connecting ones, meaning there was no fixed demand that the network airlines could take advantage of to set optimal prices for their inventory.

Consequently, airlines are losing their pricing power without their ability to accurately gauge passenger’s price sensitivity and willingness to pay.

Keeping up with the times

Given the volatile scenario of the aviation industry, airlines need to shift to revenue management systems that are flexible and offer the ability to make rapid decisions. The need of the hour is to find a cost-effective solution for optimizing flight routes based on demand and optimizing the pricing strategy based on traveler sentiment and paying capacity. 

It is however worth noting that to maximize revenue, focusing on retail customers and tourists is key. This is because many studies indicate that business travel will take longer to recover. Some estimates say 36 % of business travel may be permanently lost, largely due to arrangements, such as remote work. However, airlines need to make sure that they have enough seats set aside for business travelers on future flights when demand for corporate travel rises.

In the meantime, ancillaries are a great way to boost revenue. Specifically, providing ancillaries that people care about now, such as travel insurance, PCR tests, vaccinations on arrival, etc. will go a long way in filling flights with high-yield passengers. 

Bottom-line 

The promise of O&D bid price-based revenue management—boosting seat availability for high revenue connecting passengers while simultaneously preventing connecting passengers from displacing local passengers with higher yields—is unattainable, at least for the moment when historical data is unreliable. As a result, airlines need to look for simpler forecasting methods that do not eat away revenue the way O&D bid price-based revenue management systems do.  

Emphasis on retail passengers and tourists, and bringing in more ancillary revenue, must also be part of the solution to turn profitable on emerging from the pandemic.  

If you are looking for such cost-effective solutions that are guaranteed to bring your airline back on track, reach us at marketing@infinitisoftware.net 

An Airplane Surrounded by 5 Sales Component Pictures that represents the Airline's Ancillary Sales

What Ancillaries Should The Airlines Focus On In The Post Covid Era?

by with No Comment Blogs

Long before covid, airlines—especially the budget carriers— have been boosting their operating margins with ancillary revenue. Ancillaries, which are non-ticket sources of revenue for airlines, brought in 109.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 alone.

Since the pandemic has made passengers pickier—they expect personalization and higher safety standards—and airlines need a massive boost in revenue to recover from the devastation caused by international travel restrictions, ancillaries are expected to lead the way.

Choosing the right ancillaries to focus on

Emerging from the pandemic, customers have a variety of concerns they need resolved before they can trust air travel again. A few of them are: 

  • Increased safety measures
  • Flexibility in pricing
  • Modular offers for corporates

Meeting these should be an airline’s primary focus if they want to rekindle passenger confidence in flying and provide a seamless journey for their customers. This is because customer behavior has seen a massive shift due to social distancing requirements, fears of infection, the economic downturn, and the shift towards online buying. 

The way out of the pandemic—personalizing the passenger experience

To stay relevant and gain increased customer loyalty, airlines need to focus on personalization the way Netflix and Amazon have been able to, by moving from a product-focused approach to a customer-focused one.   

Here are a few of the ancillaries that you can offer passengers in light of the pandemic and your efforts to fill more seats with high-yield passengers. 

Covid related health measures

Passenger confidence will be boosted if you take the initiative to offer ancillaries, such as travel insurance and baggage wrapping and immune boosting kits to protect from infections. Ensure that the insurance is affordable and comprehensive, covering aspects like screening, telemedicine, treatment, and quarantine costs.  

Also, you can take a cue from a variety of tour operators who are offering tours in Russia with a twist—you will be given the vaccine on arrival. 

Moreover, some airlines are allowing passengers to book seats or whole rows near them to ensure social distancing. This can be quite lucrative if airlines are able to automate the booking process and make sure those seats are blocked from being booked by others.

Crucially, passengers also need to be offered the ability to cancel without any penalty if they contract covid.

Modular bundles for business travelers 

Identifying flights or timings with more business travelers and offering something as simple as Wi-Fi will do wonders for your bottom line. Also, offering business-class lounges, extra legroom, transport facilities in their destination, etc. for corporate travelers can significantly boost ancillary revenue.  

To attract more corporate clients, airlines can also begin offering tickets that offer changeability of the seat, refundability, and easy upgrades. 

Frequent flier rewards 

Airlines can present passengers with the opportunity to be part of a rewards program that benefits the fliers every time they use the services of the airline. Seeing rewards accumulate will serve as an impetus for many to become loyal to the brand.  

Further, the airline can make money selling loyalty points to credit card companies who pass it on to their premium customers. These customers go on to become patrons of the airline.  

Tour packages

Tourists and religious pilgrims will form a substantial part of airline revenue for the next few months, given the reluctance of many business travelers to begin corporate travel because of factors, such as remote work.

 So, catering to the tourists with fully packaged trips to their dream destination, including car rentals, hotels, and food, will serve to delight your passengers and add to the bottom-line as well. It is worth noting that airlines can profit from offering relaxation or wellbeing-themed tours because of the effect that the pandemic has had on people’s minds and bodies.  

Conclusion 

Airlines need to come up with innovative, personalized products through dynamic bundles across all touchpoints and channels. Doing so will go a long way in giving the airline a competitive advantage amidst these turbulent times.  \

If you want help with offering customer-centric ancillaries to optimize your revenue and strengthen recovery, don’t hesitate to reach us at  marketing@infinitisoftware.net