During my entire career in the airline industry, I’ve worked to automate processes from flight shopping and purchasing, to check-in and delivery of the service, to the settlement of the funds. This automation may mean an airline can have hundreds of systems and subsystems, many of which may be at different points of maturity and are different from those of other players (airlines and systems) in the industry that they need to connect to and integrate with.
When it comes to the airline industry’s transition to a world of offers and orders, one key element that has allowed us to work in the past and is critical to move forward is interoperability. The interconnecting of systems and airlines is a must for making dynamically created offers a reality—do you know why? Let’s break down what the term interoperability in the airline industry means.
What is interoperability in the airline industry?
Interoperability is simply when two or more systems (processes) use common data formats and communication protocols so they can communicate with each other. In the airline industry, we must remember that these systems can be within an airline, across multiple airlines, or to external channels and providers. As airlines and systems will be at different stages of evolution to a world of offers and orders remains critical.
Here are a just a few examples of where we see interoperability needing to occur in the airline industry today:
- Multi-content: At one airline, both dynamic and traditional offers coexist. An airline may have some markets, products, and services still relying on traditional filed fares while also creating dynamic offers at the same time and need a way to manage the pricing and revenue management content for their complete network.
- Multi-partner: Alliance, marketing, and interline partners can all be at different stages of airline offer creation evolution, but they still need to work together. Many airlines have multiple interline relationships where they rely on the same data flowing through many different systems to get a passenger from their origin to their destination via using multiple carriers.
- Multi-system: An airline’s own internal systems may be at different stages of enhancement airline offer creation evolution to support offers and orders. Most airlines cannot replace all their systems in one single day, so they must be able to work in both traditional and modern systems at the same time.
Why is interoperability in the airline industry necessary?
Interoperability gives the industry a path to transformation without having to wait until all systems, all markets, and all players have changed to the new world. In an ecosystem where traditional airline offer creation methods exist alongside dynamic airline offer creation methods, interoperability is key. Interconnecting systems and airlines is crucial for functioning because if the data does not work consistently from one system to another, then tickets, itineraries, any optional services, taxes, and other calculations can go wrong, leavings passengers with an unsatisfactory experience.
The path to the future is not just a simple switch we can turn on or off in one single day, and it’s not just one initiative to overhaul everything we’ve been doing with everything we want to be doing. It is truly a transition period where new offer creation methodologies get introduced alongside traditional offer creation methodologies. These two must work together in harmony, in one ecosystem, during the transition to be successful and for consistent results to be delivered to consumers.
How does ATPCO support interoperability?
ATPCO’s commitment to enabling the industry to get to a point where 80% of all offers sold in the market are dynamically created by 2026 requires interoperability—plain and simple! The progression in dynamic offer creation will be different for each player for quite some time.
During the Elevate + TravelConnect conference in April, we shared that 138 airlines are at a basic level and 258 airlines are at an advanced level of doing some form of optimized offers (a method of dynamic pricing that uses predefined price points with dynamic availability), 16 airlines are doing some form of adjusted offers (a method of dynamic pricing where a dynamic pricing engine uses an airline’s unique business logic to apply dynamic price adjustments to predefined prices), and zero airlines to date are doing continuous offers (a method of dynamic pricing that is fully dynamic, choosing a price from a predetermined range or directly linking to an airline's revenue management system).
Even if your airline is progressing quickly in the journey to dynamic offers, you’ll still need to be able to work with other carriers who are not at the same level of progression. ATPCO addresses and supports interoperability in four ways:
- Data and data exchange formats: We ensure our data and the solutions we’re creating have forward and backward compatibility with current as well as new distribution capabilities.
- Collaboration on standards: ATPCO has a dozen design teams working to build real solutions that support the paths to transition to a world of offers and orders.
- Scalability: Instead of each airline having to build services themselves, we can provide them at scale. Our new Product Catalogue solution is an example of how we can create interoperability, expediting innovation for our partners.
- Technology: We’re applying technology and creating services to make interoperability work. For example, in our Routehappy API, we’re working with airlines who are attaching the time of shopping in the presentation of an offer for both NDC transactions and traditionally priced transactions.
ATPCO prioritizes supporting both traditional and emerging, innovative worlds. Want to talk interoperability with us or find out how you can grow current solutions while keeping your peace of mind?
