You are not logged in: Client login
T2RL Home
 
 
 

This is just a sample of news items. Subscribers get access to all news articles. Please contact us for more information on subscription services.

Surviving and Recovering from Major Disruption - T2RL's Outlook
This is the second edition of T2RL's analysis on the market recovery for the airline industry during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This report focuses on the general market for airline services, the effect this may have on airline distribution and the GDS market and the potential impact on technology changes including NDC and ONE Order.

T2RL will update this document on a quarterly basis as new information and developments become apparent. The next edition is scheduled for December.
02/09/2020

Accelya gets regulatory approval to buy Farelogix and completes the acquisition.
Accelya have been given regulatory approval and concluded their acquisition of Farelogix. T2RL believed that approval would be granted. The reality is this was completed quickly. This reduces uncertainty and provides customers with comfort after the period of uncertainty following the failure to secure regulatory approval of the CMA of the UK by Sabre for the transaction following a successful judgement in the US.
31/07/2020

Amadeus wins a 40M passenger carrier but does not name the airline - T2RL believe it is likely to be ANA
Today Amadeus published their H1 2020 results. The management call included a slide and statement that "a 40M PB carrier"..."contracted for the Altea PSS. T2RL believe this carrier is likely to be ANA. Amadeus already provide Altea to ANA for the international business and have been negotiating with Amadeus to replace the in-house developed, Unisys based solution. T2RL would expect the migration to take place over more than 24 months, although post-Covid this may be accelerated. Amadeus have significant knowledge of the Japanese market following Japan Airlines migration which should accelerate the time to deployment.
31/07/2020

Sabre dissolves PSS and GDS organisation and merges them into a single organisation under Dave Shirk
Today Sean Menke, President and Chief Executive Officer announced a restructuring of the Sabre business. The announcement is significant in that Sabre have removed the separation of the airline IT and GDS businesses and merged them into a single organisation. From T2RL's perspective this makes sense and something T2RL have been seeking for many years in terms of procuring services from Sabre that cover IT and distribution.
09/07/2020

Blue Air migrates to Hitit PSS
Hitit has migrated Blue Air from Amadeus Navitaire to their Crane Solution Suite on 10th June 2020. Blue Air is the largest Romanian carrier and boarded 4.2 million passengers in 2019. Blue Air suspended all operations on 21st March 2020 due to the Covid-19 outbreak and their migration to Hitit was completed during this period.
30/06/2020

Accelya to acquire Farelogix
Accelya have announced an agreement to acquire Farelogix. Following on from the Competition and Market Authority ruling in the UK that prohibited the Sabre Farelogix deal, Accelya and their owners Vista Equity Partners Perennial have seized the opportunity to step in and acquire Farelogix. Whilst there is nothing in the press release on the value of the deal, T2RL believe it will be close to the original price offered by Sabre perhaps less a portion of the Sabre paid break up fee. This is undoubtedly a bold move from Accelya and their backers Vista given the current industry crisis. For T2RL this means Accelya and their backers have confidence in their role and the recovery and the long-term health of the airline industry. From T2RL's perspective Accelya Farelogix have no overlap in capabilities and the sales and marketing teams work with different groups inside the airlines. T2RL believes this should ensure that the regulators approve the deal and are able to deliver on their vision of a single end to end platform that supports offer creation through to settlement. With capabilities in revenue management, merchandising, order management, ticketing and revenue accounting functions on offer one of the key challenges will be the economics and contractual issues associated with integration with the existing PSS/GDS providers, Amadeus, Sabre and Travelsky. In the past this forced Farelogix to develop capabilities associated with ticketing and legacy EDIFACT messaging, now they may want to develop inventory and departure control capabilities too, or acquire them.
16/06/2020

Bahamasair migrates to Hitit PSS
Hitit continues to grow their customer base with the national carrier of the Bahamas - Bahamasair, who is also their first airline customer in the Americas. Hitit migrated Bahamasair from Sabre to their Crane Solution Suite on 11th March 2020. The migration took 4 months and was completed just before the Covid-19 travel restrictions were introduced.
10/06/2020

SLA Design in a Complex IT Eco-System
Service levels and governance methods date back, almost unchanged, for more than 20 years whilst the technology and services underpinned by these IT-metric-based Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and governance approaches have evolved significantly.

T2RL have undertaken an analysis to understand how service management is changing to address the challenges of new service architectures and commercial models and what further improvements are required to help achieve better business outcomes.
31/05/2020

The Long Climb to Recovery - T2RL's Outlook
This is the first edition of T2RL's analysis on the market recovery for the airline industry during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This report focuses on the general market for airline services, the effect this may have on airline distribution and the GDS market and the potential impact on technology changes including NDC and ONE Order.

T2RL will update this document on a quarterly basis as new information and developments become apparent. The next edition is scheduled for August.
13/05/2020

Lufthansa Group gives notice to Sabre and Abacus for withdrawal from end of June 2020
In line with T2RL's current position that some airlines will not want to participate in all of the Global GDS providers, the Lufthansa Group have indicated they will discontinue participation in the Sabre and Abacus GDS from the 30 June 2020. No information was provided on how agents will service bookings that depart after that date. Lufthansa have been very careful to state they are willing to negotiate with Sabre so one possible outcome is that Lufthansa and Sabre agree terms. This could be seen as a negotiating tactic, one that is quite likely to be effective in T2RL's view. With Sabre reporting a 45% reduction in GDS revenues for the first quarter of 2020 Sabre will have to think carefully about their position in Europe. Lufthansa have secured government support and have started to sale and lease back aircraft to maintain liquidity. The reality is there has been an ongoing set of issues with Sabre for sometime, so this should not be a surprise given the relationship dynamics. T2RL believe that more airlines are likely to terminate their relationships with all GDSs and pick those that will agree to negotiate on terms that are more acceptable to the airlines. The most challenging issue with GDS agreements has been and continues to be that of non-discrimination. T2RL's view is that airlines should be able to reward efficient points of sale that generate revenue at the best cost. By signing a GDS agreement with non-discrimination it means all points of sale have to be treated equally even if they are more costly in terms of system use or fees and charges for lower revenues generated. T2RL believe that the current crisis will drive a new generation of GDS agreements with more variable content. Domestic distribution tends to rely more on the airline's own website and this will be the focus for most carriers in distribution for the short and medium term.
12/05/2020

Warren Buffett sells all of his shares in Delta, American, Southwest and United Airlines
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says his company Berkshire Hathaway has sold all of its shares in the four largest US airlines. Speaking at the annual shareholders' meeting, Mr Buffett said "the world has changed" because of the coronavirus.
03/05/2020

Airlines Grapple With The Impact Of The Covid Pandemic
As the industry grapples with the impact of this pandemic, the following airlines have announced actual or potential reductions in workforce, as approx. 2 thirds of the global fleet is grounded for the foreseeable future; Ryanair 3,000, EasyJet 4,000 laid off for 2 mths, BA 12,000 (nearly 30% of total employees), SAS 5,000, 700 American Airlines pilots have taken early retirement, Norwegian Air 4,700, Air Canada 5,100, Air New Zealand 3,500, Transat AT 3,600 and Lufthansa predicts it may need 10,000 fewer employees in the future. Boeing is laying off 10% of their workforce through voluntary measures and Airbus has furloughed 6,000 production workers, indicating further announcements in June.
01/05/2020

Sabre and Farelogix deal is dead
Sabre and Farelogix have agreed to terminate the agreement. Sabre CEO, Sean Menke citied the UK's Competition and Markets Authority as the primary reason for the agreement's termination. Whilst there is little doubt Farelogix would have helped Sabre compete more effectively against Amadeus, the reality of the current liquidity crisis in the travel industry has affected and will continue to affect both Sabre and Farelogix. T2RL believe, that even with the current crisis there will be other suitors for Farelogix should the shareholders still wish to dispose of the asset. However the price will not be $360M. Potentially the current Farelogix shareholders may wish to wait until better times for a better price.
01/05/2020

Flexibility key to Recovery for Loyalty Vendors
Along with the rest of the industry, airline loyalty programs are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. This First View looks at why loyalty is a key area to drive recovery.
15/04/2020

Amadeus Scheduling Moves to the Next Level
Amadeus and Optym have announced that the airline network planning business of Optym has been acquired by Amadeus. This First View looks at what this acquisition means for the industry.
17/02/2020

Technology - Innovation and Standardisation in the Airline Industry
NDC and ONE Order represent a new generation of technology for airline distribution, but they build on a long tradition of airlines working together to create standards that allow them to inter-operate to serve common customers. T2RL's latest research examines the need for standards in the industry. We look in some depth at the work that Amadeus, the leader in airline commercial technology, is putting into delivering the new standards to benefit the whole value chain in airline distribution.
25/11/2019

IBS acquires AD OPT
On September 10, 2019, IBS Software announced that it had completed the acquisition of AD OPT. This First View looks at what this acquisition means for the industry.
25/11/2019

AGIFORS Symposium 2019
The annual Symposium from AGIFORS (Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies) was held in Seattle, USA from September 30 to October 4, 2019. This First View looks at the presentations given at the forefront of tech research in the airline industry.
17/10/2019

Aeromexico extends Sabre PSS and confirms participation in Sabre's GDS Services
Aeromexico have renewed and extended their PSS and GDS agreements with Sabre. T2RL supported the process on behalf of Aeromexico and are therefore unable to provide any additional insight or commentary.
14/10/2019

ATPCO Continues its Reinvention
T2RL attended the ATPCO 'Elevate' customer conference in Washington DC on October 1st and 2nd. In this First View T2RL looks at ATPCO's recent activity and why they are succeeding in their reinvention.
07/10/2019


Page 4 out of 13

Page Next

 
Contact us  |  Privacy  |  Glossary  |  Terms  |  T2RL.com  |  Manage Account  |  About

T2RL Engage Conference