Interested in in-depth exploration of offer- and order-based retailing? From educational resources to industry insights, we’ve got you covered at Sabre.com/open.

In part one of our new series, we examined how transitioning to an offer and order model would greatly enhance the traveler experience by addressing key pain points. Now, we turn our attention to airlines, exploring how technological advancements could help unlock significant revenue opportunities – estimated at $40bn by 2030 across the airline industry according to a 2019 study by McKinsey & Company.

Here, we demonstrate how Sabre and IATA’s shared vision for rich offers supported by ONE Order fulfillment will free airlines from the constraints imposed by today’s standards and systems. Instead, airlines will be able to sell and service a wide range of new and personalized NDC-enabled offers to drive incremental revenue while adding value for their customers. When combined with the cost savings and service level enhancements that can be realized through more efficient management of orders (with ONE Order), the business case for change becomes unquestionable.

What are offers and orders?

Offers include the different pieces of an itinerary that come together to form a trip. Today, offers primarily consist of airfares and air ancillaries. Over time, offers will expand to include other types of content – for example, lodging, ground transportation and other ancillaries.

Once a traveler selects an offer, it becomes an order. The ONE Order model sets the stage to simplify a variety of long-standing processes related to fulfillment, settlement and reporting, which can help airlines reduce costs and save time.

Today, airlines…

  • Have limited visibility into individual traveler preferences
  • Face difficulty selling and servicing a broad range of personalized offers
  • Struggle to manage complex partnership agreements due to inadequate system capabilities

Enabling airlines to better meet the needs of travelers will enhance differentiation in a crowded marketplace, promote loyalty and ultimately deliver profitable, sustainable revenue growth.

In the future, with offer and order management airlines can…

  • Create, fulfill and service more personalized and higher margin content
  • Use real-time data flows from offers and orders to grow revenue and reduce costs
  • Embark on new partnerships for air and non-air products, improving choice for customers

Offer and order management opens new growth opportunities and gives the travel industry more flexibility in terms of what can be sold, merchandised and managed.

In our next installment, we start to bring offers and orders to life by exploring the fundamental building blocks of a retail-led solution for airlines.

About the Author 

Andrew Thorpe is part of the Sabre team exploring what the future of travel will look like and how airlines can succeed with offer- and order-enabled retailing.