Insight Articles

Just over 30% of IBS Software's shares change hands for 450 million USD, VK Mathews remains as majority shareholder, Founder and Executive Chairman.

Hitit has announced the migration of Air Peace to its platform, Hitit Crane. The deal includes full PSS, IBE, Loyalty and its Mobile App. This is Hitit's fourth migration this year. Air Peace boarded near to 5 million PBs in 2022 and the migration pushes Hitit into second place in the African region with over 15% of the PSS market.

Accelya has announced the appointment of ex-Sabre CEO and Chairman, Sam Gilliland, as its next CEO. A seasoned travel industry veteran, Sam brings a wealth of experience from all parts of the travel industry. The announcement comes four years after Sabre's unsuccessful attempt to purchase Farelogix for $360 million, which was consequently sold to Accelya in 2020.

FLYR Labs has announced it has acquired the offer and order management provider Pribas for an undisclosed amount. Pribas, a Germany based 'alternative PSS provider' launched its platform, AirBroker ONE in 2018 which is purely based on the newer technology principles of NDC and ONE Order. The Norwegian LCC, Flyr (not to be confused with FLYR Labs) was Pribas's first customer to fully complete a booking solely using the new reservation/offer and order management platform. This is a major move for FLYR Labs, clearly entering the PSS market when airlines are actively looking to develop their order...

This webinar from 5th April joins Bert Craven, Dieter Westermann and Ian Luck who discuss the different types of 'dynamics' in the industry and what airlines should think about when rolling out these capabilities.

Avianca is the commercial brand that integrates the customer and cargo airlines under Avianca Group International Limited. Today, Avianca offers over 14 million customers the most complete network in Colombia and one of the largest in Latin America with more than 110 routes, more than 3,200 flights and more than 500,000 seats per week.

JetBlue has made a $3.6 Billion cash offer for Spirit Airlines. Spirit has already agreed a merger with Frontier Airlines. The combination of Frontier and Spirit was a much more obvious proposition given that the two airlines share most key characteristics in their ultra low-cost business models. JetBlue positions itself a a premium LCC and integration with Spirit could be more problematic. Unlike Spirit and Frontier JetBlue does not use the Navitaire PSS from Amadeus although it was the launch customer for Navitaire's New Skies system which it used until 2010 when it switched to Sabre.

Amadeus has expanded the integration and partnership announced in July 2021 by acquiring Kambr. Navitaire has been active in developing revenue optimisation capabilities for ancillaries via its API products and services. The acquisition of Kambr expands its capablities for inventory and revenue management control. Accelya's RMS is currently the leading provider of revenue management solutions for Navitaire's customer base. Navitaire will likely push the value of tighter integration and service management as part of the value proposition of Kambr. Given the Navitaire customers' thirst for simplicity,...

Dieter Westermann and Ian Luck present Dynamic Pricing and Distribution : Indexing the Progress showcasing our latest research highlights and analysis on Dynamic Pricing. This hot issue in the airline industry is the subject of much speculation around how quickly it may progress, especially in indirect channels.

Hitit has raised a capital injection of around USD 25 million with an IPO price of TL12.25 per share. The company was valued at around USD 115 million with a free float of 28%. Hitit plans to use the raised capital to further support its international growth and expansion.

As announced in October of last year Sabre has now completed the sale of its AirCentre operations portfolio to CAE of Canada. The sale is valued at $392.5 million and includes technology and intellectual property as well as the transfer of associated staff.

Frontier Airlines and Spirit have announced that they are to merge. The combined airline will have a fleet of around 330 narrow body jets and will be expected to carry over 50 million annual passengers as the market recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Both airlines are currently users of the Navitaire New Skies PSS from Amadeus and the new carrier will become the fourth largest Navitaire customer globally and the largest in the Americas.

Sabre has announced that Kurt Ekert will succeed Sean Menke as CEO on 27 April 2023. This First View explores what this appointment could mean for Sabre and the wider industry.

Hitit has announced that it has entered a five year contract with Turkish Airlines Group to supply its Crane Passenger Services System to the group's AnadoluJet subsidiary. T2RL speculates what this signing could mean for the PSS vendor and the market as a whole.

At the start of the year Amadeus launched the spin-off of its payments division into the company Outpayce. At the end of November, Sabre announced its purchase of the company Conferma Pay in August 2022 as well as a recent partnership with Mastercard. This First View assesses the benefits and drawbacks to airlines of using Virtual Credit Cards and why this method of payment may become increasingly important for an airline's travel agency network.

It is inevitable that the number and frequency of severe weather events will grow as the climate crisis develops. In addition it is very unlikely that the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine will be the last such events to impact the airline industry. T2RL speculates what may be next for Operational systems.

Finnair and Amadeus have announced in a press release that Finnair will use Amadeus solutions for both Offers and Orders in a step that will see them cooperate on 'the transformation of airline retailing'. T2RL speculates on what this step could mean for both airlines and IT vendors.

American Airlines (AA) has announced significant changes to its distribution strategy, which follows on from news in October that it has deals with all three major GDSs to distribute NDC content. This First View analyses what this may mean for the market and if this could allow AA to mitigate revenue risk.

Accelya has announced that Sam Gilliland, the former CEO of Sabre, will be its new CEO. Jim Davidson will take the advisory role of Vice Chairman. T2RL speculates what this appointment could mean for Accelya and what options the company has to move forward.

T2RLEngage 2022 took place from 28th - 30th September in London. The conference marked the first face-to-face T2RL conference following two years of virtual events. The conference attracted over 90 airline delegates representing 50 airlines boarding over 40% of global passengers. T2RL has highlighted three key takeaways from the event.

During its Elevate conference held in Washington DC last week ATPCO announced a new service called Airline Order Posting that is intended to ease the transition to the new world of Offer/Order based airline distribution. This first view speculates what a solution like this one could mean for the industry.

Following the announcement from SAS that it will launch a compulsory Distribution Commission Program for all travel agencies in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, the old wholesale commercial model is new again. In this First View, T2RL speculates what this means for each stakeholder in the market.

Only two months after its acquisition of Newshore, FLYR Labs has announced another significant addition to its portfolio, Pribas. Pribas adds inventory and merchandising to the core FLYR Revenue Operating System and Newshore's e-commerce. This First View explores what this acquisition could mean for the industry and other players.

Following the announcement that FLYR Labs has acquired Newshore, T2RL has noted several companies that have ambitions to expand their offering in the airline commercial IT environment. This First View highlights a few of these companies and what needs to be thought about when entering a space dominated by Amadeus, Sabre and TravelSky.