First View

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.
Date: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.
Date: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.
Date:31/01/2023

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.
Date: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.
Date: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.
Date: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.
Date:15/11/2022

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.
Date: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.
Date: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.
Date: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.
Date: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.
Date: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.
Date:23/05/2022

Russian carriers plan migrations to localised alternatives
S7 has announced, via a third-party source, its migration from the Amadeus PSS to Russian provider ORS, formerly known as TAIS. The provider was chosen via a tender process and the migration will take place in October this year. It has been reported by the Russian press that the Russian Ministry of Transport in 2019 ordered all Russian carriers to localise their booking systems. It has also been reported that the date for these forced migrations has been postponed several times. The most recent reports say that carriers are required to localise their booking services by the end of October 2022. This six page T2RL report offers analysis and speculation.
Date:06/05/2022

Is there a Future for Standalone NDC Aggregators?
The Flight Centre Travel Group announced that it has increased its holding in Dubai-based NDC aggregator TP Connects to 70%, giving it a controlling interest. Flight Centre previously held a 22.5% stake which it acquired in February 2020. This first view explores why it could see this as an opportunity and what challenges it and other aggregators may face moving forward.
Date:21/03/2022

A Rapid Retreat from Globalism
All three major GDS companies have announced that they have removed or are removing the schedules and fares of Aeroflot from their databases. This effectively prevents travel agents using Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport selling tickets for the Russian flag-carrier's services. This First View explores the effects this may have and speculates on potential short and longer term impacts of current events.
Date:07/03/2022

Qantas Finding Value in its NDC Investment
Qantas has announced a promotional offer available exclusively to travel agents participating in its NDC channels. The offer provides a specific discount when the agent enters the customer's FFP number in the booking. This First View assesses this announcement and the reasoning behind using such a tactic.
Date:15/02/2022

The Pandemic has been Hardest for Amadeus but it Remains Dominant
The migration of GOL from Amadeus Navitaire to Sabre is the first PSS move of any airline in the top three tiers this year and is the largest airline migration since the pandemic hit 18 months ago. This First View looks at the future strategy of the top three PSS vendors; Amadeus, Sabre and TravelSky and their outlook after the pandemic.
Date:22/09/2021

2021 Vendor Forecast
T2RL has reconciled passenger volumes for the first half of 2021 published by the three largest PSS providers - Amadeus, Sabre & TravelSky - and created a forecast for their full year 2021 passenger volumes. T2RL will continue to research actual passenger volumes and our 2021 vendor forecast will be updated regularly here.
Date:13/09/2021

Revenue Accounting Snapshot 2021
T2RL has recorded the total size of the market for airline revenue accounting systems in 2020 as 1.6 billion passengers boarded, a decline of 59% from 2019. This report takes a snapshot of the current revenue accounting market share for vendors in August 2021 using passenger numbers from 2020.
Date:31/08/2021