Bhaskara Series

In the first installment in this blog series, Sabre’s Bhaskara Guntreddy explored how innovation, experimentation and partnership underpins the path to growth. In part two, Bhaskara explores how offering greater choice, and the ability to experiment with offers using Sabre’s travel retail solutions, plays a key role in meeting traveler demands for affordability, speed, and quality. How airlines can give their customers more choice We all know that ancillary revenue has become a crucial source of revenue for airlines, but that traditional pricing rules have limited their ability to generate it in a meaningful way. Thankfully, Sabre Ancillary IQ™, one of Sabre’s Retail Intelligence products, changes all that. What we’ve created with this product is the ability for airlines to offer personalized ancillary services based on individual passenger preferences, at scale and at speed. Here’s why it makes such a difference for airlines looking to get ahead at the opportunities that lie within ancillaries. At Sabre, we’re proud of the benefits Ancillary IQ is delivering to our customers. It uses advanced machine learning algorithms to consider factors such as frequent flyer status, journey time, origin and destination, and aircraft information, to provide targeted ancillary offers in real time. Our Cloud Automation Framework seamlessly supports machine learning workflows, deploying new models and retraining existing models on a continuous basis. This provides enormous flexibility to experiment with any new models or analytics involving custom attributes specific to the needs of an airline. As the saying goes – “the proof is in the pudding”. The proof in this case is that our airline customers using Ancillary IQ have seen incremental ancillary revenue increase by up to 10%, based on actual production implementation. Our airline customers have seen increased revenue up to 10% revenue uplift** in incremental ancillary revenue opportunities created by Ancillary IQ **Results are based on production implementation of partner airline customersand vary, depending on price sensitivity in the market. That is a testament to the ability of our embedded machine learning models to deliver truly intelligent offers to every customer, every time. But the benefits extend beyond just commercial returns, there is also an ‘insight return’ too. Experimenting to Innovate I’ve always tried to design products with the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson in mind: “experimentation is the lifeblood of innovation.” For me, this is a constant reminder that without continually trialing new ideas and methods, it is impossible to truly innovate. The more we experiment and explore, the more we learn, and the greater our chances of developing truly groundbreaking ideas and technologies. In this era of economically deployable machine learning and artificial intelligence, there is even greater scope for doing this quickly and successfully. And in my view that is the opportunity for airlines in the increasingly personalization-driven travel retail environment: optimizing offers based on unmatched intelligence through scalable, fast and flexible experimentation. Airlines can use Sabre’s experimentation framework to test, learn and maximize revenue in real-time. Retail Intelligence gives airlines the ability to adapt quickly to changing market dynamics and deliver personalized offers that meet customer needs. Not only does this benefit the traveler with tailored offers, it also allows airlines to benefit from continuous learning to advance their pricing strategies. Look out for the final part of this series where I’ll go into detail on partnerships, and why the right ones are vital to innovation and growth. Read Part 3 Bhaskara Guntreddy is Vice President of Product, Offer Optimization at Sabre. He’s an industry veteran with deep expertise in pricing and revenue management. Check out the additional posts in this series: Article Airlines April 19, 2023 Three ways airlines can offer more value, more choice and generate more revenue – Part 1 To bring more compelling, personalized content to travelers, airlines need technology that can adapt to changing market dynamics. At Sabre, we believe this future is powered by a shift to offer and orders that gives airlines… Read more

Bhaskara Series

Three ways airlines can offer more value, more choice and generate more revenue – Part 2

Three ways airlines can offer more value, more choice and generate more revenue – Part 1