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Virgin Atlantic's Conservative Path to NDC
Virgin Atlantic has relaunched its initiative in NDC sales and servicing with an announcement that it would not penalise other distribution technologies. T2RL assesses this news and how this strategy sets it apart from most of the early adopters.
11/09/2023

Transformation Series - OOSD for Sellers
This is the fourth in a series of reports that T2RL has produced during the course of 2023 on the transformation to the new Offer, Order, Settle, Deliver environment. This particular report considers the impact of the changes on those organisations that sell on behalf of the airlines. These are primarily travel agents of various kinds, including the large Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), the major Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and the retail travel agencies that serve a mix of business, leisure and inclusive tour travel.
20/07/2023

IBS Software shares to change hands.
Just over 30% of IBS Software's shares change hands for 450 million USD, VK Mathews remains as majority shareholder, Founder and Executive Chairman.
15/05/2023

Hitit adds Air Peace as a Customer
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.
23/03/2023

Changing of the Guard at Sabre
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.
02/03/2023

Major Success for Hitit
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.
27/02/2023

From Distribution to Payment
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.
31/01/2023

Transition to Normality - T2RL's Industry Outlook
Covid is now just one challenge amongst many. Our recent Industry Outlook paper looks at the external challenges facing airlines and the implications these are having on airline technology and distribution.
20/01/2023

Adapting Operations to a Harsher World
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.
18/01/2023

Finnair and Amadeus to Pioneer OOSD
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.
15/12/2022

American Airlines: Distribution to the Rescue?
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.
05/12/2022

Accelya Hires a Big Hitter
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.
15/11/2022

Accelya appoint Sam Gilliland as CEO
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.
14/11/2022

Addressing the Volume Problem in NDC
There has been a great deal of interest lately in the potential problem that NDC traffic between travel sellers, airlines and intermediaries will be too much to handle economically in the available systems. This paper has been produced by T2RL to consider the problem and to assess some existing proposals that have been put forward by industry players. It also considers the proposition put forward by Amadeus that substantial take-up of NDC distribution would put unsustainable stress on NDC offer management systems.
09/11/2022

T2RLEngage 2022 Key Takeaways
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.
17/10/2022

ATPCO Walks the Talk
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.
17/10/2022

SAS's Distribution Commission Program: A New Distribution Model is Born
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.
03/10/2022

FLYR Labs Driving Competitive Dynamics for PSS
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.
15/09/2022

Competition for the PSS - Piecing Together the New Airline Commercial IT Environment
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.
27/07/2022

Verdict in US Airways vs Sabre - Preserves the Status Quo
On the claim that Sabre's contract with US Airways was anti-competitive the jury found in favour of the GDS company. On the related claim that Sabre operated an unlawful monopoly it found for the airline but awarded a single dollar in compensation. T2RL assesses what this outcome means for airlines, GDSs, technology players and other stakeholders.
23/05/2022