Mark McDonald

✈ China Eastern Airlines Global has partnered with Amadeus for international NDC distribution, a first in mainland China. 🥇 This collaboration aims to offer richer, customizable content to #travel sellers worldwide, enhancing customer experience and accelerating international traffic recovery. 🌐 As a leader in travel technology, Amadeus plays a crucial role in facilitating this initiative. China Eastern's move underscores its commitment to providing enhanced choices and superior service to customers globally. 🌏 As a key member of the SkyTeam Alliance, China Eastern operates extensive international and domestic services, primarily from Shanghai and Beijing. This partnership signals a significant step forward in expanding China Eastern's overseas sales channels. 🗺 ✈ #aviation #airlines #businesstravel #travelindustry #travelbookings #NDC #Amadeus #ChinaEastern

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As the pace of change in the aviation industry continues to accelerate, the role of technology becomes ever more important, as airlines modernize systems to deliver improved retailing and increased capacity. Against this backdrop, Amadeus has signed a new partnership with Jeju Air, which will see the South Korean carrier deploy Amadeus Segment Revenue Management Flex (Amadeus SRM Flex). The solution will help the airline understand exactly how routes are performing, allowing teams to easily find revenue opportunities from the information at their fingertips. Find out more in the full release here: https://lnkd.in/dV5DBcKE #RevenueManagement #Airlines #Technology #ModernRetailing

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The global travel industry is back on track, surging by 24% in 2023 to hit $1.5 trillion. North America, Asia Pacific and Western Europe continue to lead in terms of market size. https://ow.ly/cutZ30sFSU9

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LOYALTY COULD BE PEG TO VALUE. MAYBE A 20% DIFFERENCE IS OK BUT NOT 100% IN TICKET PRICES. Despite intensifying competition putting a squeeze on its profitability, Singapore Airlines (SIA) intends to continue expanding its flight capacity, with chief executive Goh Choon Phong expressing optimism about growth opportunities in #India and South-east Asia. As rival airlines mounted more flights during the quarter ended Sept 30, the national carrier said it earned less for each passenger flown. This is because the injection of flight capacity outweighed the growth in traffic. As a result, SIA Group’s net profit for the period between July and September plunged 59 per cent to $290 million, compared with $707 million a year ago. Apart from tapering revenue, the airline group’s costs also rose by 14.7 per cent over the period, with non-fuel expenses going up by 16.6 per cent on the back of inflationary pressures.

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Today marks another important "first" for Spotnana, as we announce the launch of our latest direct NDC connection - this time with Copa Airlines. While this new direct connection is important, and will bring instant value for our #travelasaservice customers in all segment - the most exciting piece of news is probably that the Spotnana software engineers developed this connection in literally ONE day in close partnership with the COPA distribution team Just imagine what that means for both the airline community and the customers - the days of spending 3-6 months waiting for code to be written and tested are coming to an end - and will be replaced by a cloud-centric mindset where new features and capabilities can be delivered in a few hours or days For the airlines it also means they can introduce new fares, services and features much faster than before, while the buyers can take advantage of these almost instantly rather than having to wait for an unknown period of time to get access to a new service announced by an airline a long time ago (sounds familiar ?) Focusing back on the COPA NDC connection again - the solution we have created includes support for all the usual important features such as search and book, all fare types and promotions, ancillaries, COPA PriceLock, reservations on-hold for 24 hours and self-service exchange and cancellations If COPA is one of your preferred airlines then reach out to the Spotnana sales team or one of our many partners to schedule a demo of this newest NDC connection - and see with your own eyes how NDC does work perfectly today This is #openinnovation in action - powered by #travelmicroservices and running on top of Spotnana's open #cloudnative #travelasaservice platform - and there is much news on the way, stay tuned https://lnkd.in/eKw45haF

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Research from Outpayce from Amadeus, surveying 5,000 travelers and over 50 senior payment leaders in airlines, found that nearly 90% of travelers would be more likely to choose one airline over another if given the option to pay in their preferred currency (eliminating the need to do a currency conversion to fully understand the price). The research also showed that more than one in ten passengers have paid over 10% of the cost of a flight in hidden foreign exchange charges, so it's easy to see why they value that transparency. It's clear from the above that one of our opportunities to make things better for travelers is multi-currency pricing. In a competitive industry, these little details matter. 43% of payments leaders said their company already prices in the searcher's native currency. A further 36% said they were planning to do it soon.   More nuggets like this in the full Travel Technology Investment Trends 2024 (Payments) report, here: https://lnkd.in/dRXzghHP     #AmadeusTechTrends2024 #ModernRetailing #Aviation #Technology

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✈ Sabre Corporation has raised its 2024 revenue and adjusted EBITDA outlook following impressive Q2 results. 👌 The #traveltech giant reported $61M in operating income for Q2, up $103M from last year. 💰 Revenues totaled $767M, a 4% YoY increase. 💸 This growth was driven by solid performances in 🔖 Travel Solutions ($695M) and 🔖 Hospitality Solutions ($83M). Key achievements include: 📌 Signing Korea's largest OTA, InterparkTriple 📌 Expanding partnerships with Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Etihad, and Spotnana 📌 Launching SabreMosaic and SynXis Concierge.AI CEO Kurt Ekert highlighted the company's optimism about corporate travel growth and ongoing cost management successes. 💡 #Sabre #Q2Results #TravelTechnology #TravelIndustry #Etihad #Hospitality

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Do you know why Singapore Airlines is known for its high quality and price? Many of us may not be aware, but this is very much hardwired in their DNA because high quality and maximising returns are explicitly expressed in their mission statement. Recent news on their executive compensation and bonus payouts to employees are recent ways to demonstrate in real terms how they are executing upon their mission. This is the power of a clinically crafted mission statement - the ability to formulate organisation strategy, configure business models and align activities to deliver desired outcomes. However, the ability to execute mission-aligned strategies is not as easy as it sound, as outlined in this 2010 HBR article on Singapore Airlines. https://lnkd.in/ganEybfH Side note 1 : Even HBR authors conflate the terms mission and vision. They are fundamentally different constructs. So, do critically review popular business journal sites and do not assume that they are always right. Side note 2: I’m not suggesting that Singapore Airlines’ mission statement is a good one.

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How can you get 80% to spend more in your airport? AeroCloud’s new report launches today with a blueprint for how you can attract more passengers to your airport and boost their spending while there. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/ehMFg45q   #AirportTransformation #DestinationAirport #PassengerInsights #AirportInnovation #Research  

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The Indian AvGeek episode 17, with Vasuki Prasad, APAC Marketing Director at Embraer We discussed: 👉🏽His time in commercial planning at Vistara, the tool he developed to help revenue management 👉🏽How Embraer positions itself against Airbus and Boeing 👉🏽How the aircraft selling pitch to airlines happen? Which all departments get involved? 👉🏽Relevance of airshows in today’s world 👉🏽How integrated marketing works at Embraer, as well as their famed “Profit Hunter” campaign. This and more, in the first part of our chat: https://lnkd.in/g-ms-z_a #podcast #marketing #aviation

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"With a keen focus on honouring the best #hotels, #airlines, #airports, #cruiselines, tour operators and #travelagencies, #bookingplatforms, and #travel technology, projects, and initiatives, the TDM Travel Excellence Awards programme aims to spotlight key players that consistently redefine industry standards and elevate customer experiences." Travel UCITS #ETF $TRIP #etfs https://lnkd.in/gSihymdH

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Amadeus has announced a major extension of its partnership with HRS, bringing advanced AI-driven technologies to #corporatetravel. 🌐 This multi-year agreement integrates HRS' cutting-edge solutions into Amadeus' Cytric platform, revolutionizing booking, sustainability, and financial processes. 🗺 📍 Key highlights: 📍 🔺 Optimized Property Shopping: Machine learning ensures accurate rate and amenity displays, maximizing hotel program savings. 🔺 Automated Rebooking: Automatically secures lower rates, saving costs on room bookings. 🔺 Sustainable Travel: The Green Stay Initiative promotes eco-friendly hotels, providing detailed sustainability data. 🔺 Seamless Payments: Advanced payment and invoice collection enhance accuracy and efficiency. This collaboration reflects the trend of increased investment in travel tech, aiming to improve travel and expense management for corporations and travelers alike. 🌍✨ #Amadeuds #TravelTech #BusinessTravel #Cytric #bookings #Sustainability

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🌍 Future through collaboration: I’m at Passenger Terminal EXPO & CONFERENCE ✈️ this week and it is fantastic to see our ecosystem and portfolio growing for airport and airline operations: with Microsoft and Vision-Box, an AMADEUS company we are creating the future of aviation operations.With Microsoft we are showcasing our new virtual airport operations centre, the Amadeus Virtual APOC, integrated into Microsoft Teams. Delivering a smooth experience at the airport involves hundreds of different contributors working closely together.  Enter Amadeus Virtual APOC – our new virtual airport operations center ­ consolidates data from across the airport ecosystem, delivering right-time insights for stakeholders to make informed decisions to manage rolling operational planning.    Vision-Box, our newest member of the Amadeus family, is complementing the Amadeus solution portfolio with key elements to create the smooth and seamless airport and travel experience we have always dreamed of. The strong strategic and cultural fit of both organizations will create massive value, both for our customers and for the travelers!     Miguel Leitmann Rudy Daniello Holger Mattig Sarah Samuel Carl Rogers Juan Carlos Jodar Sven Hafner Abhishek K. Avinash V. Magalie Halsey Yannick Beunardeau Katia Fabienne Tonelle da Silva Lutz Vorneweg Julie Shainock Alessandro Minucci Jean-François (Jeff) Lennon Amadeus for airports Amadeus for airlines #PTExpoConf #AirportTechnology #Innovation #AI #Biometrics

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By 2030, IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) is expected to be a fully matured and mainstream product in the airline and travel industries. NDC also newly branded as Enhanced and Simplified Distribution marks a major change in the distribution of airline services, moving from the conventional global distribution systems (GDS) to a direct, more adaptable approach that connects airlines, travel agencies, and customers more closely. What does the vision for Offer, Order, Settlement and Delivery (OOSD) strategy look like for your Airline? Are your Airlines prepared for: - Widespread Industry Adoption - Personalization at Scale - Shift in GDS & Travel Agency Roles - Consumer Empowerment and Transparency - AI & Machine Learning in NDC - New Business Models and Marketplace Dynamics By 2030, the OOSD ecosphere will likely be seen as a fully established industry norm, transforming the way airlines distribute their products and interact with customers. The OOSD echo system will offer a more transparent, personalized, and dynamic way for consumers and businesses to engage with air travel, fostering innovation, competition, and greater customer satisfaction in the process. The airlines that invest in adopting and refining NDC today will be the ones leading the industry in the future. So, are you ready? Let’s talk on how does the OOSD revolution will happen with us #TPConnects.  #OOSD #NDCNorm

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I had the great pleasure of being invited to the Amadeus China Visionaries airline event in Kunming to discuss with various industry stakeholders the trends, challenges, and opportunities related to NDC. Looking back at years of collaboration with Amadeus in the NDC space, we are extremely proud of the achievements that give us a competitive edge as a leading OTA in the Taiwanese market. We are now well positioned and determined to continue transforming our operations, adapting to the world of modern retailing. In 2021, our long-term partnership with Amadeus expanded into the NDC realm. We selected NDC-X, the leading solution in the market, to build our NDC connection with SQ. As one of the first NDC users in the Taiwanese market, ezTravel, in close collaboration with Amadeus, has provided a smooth and streamlined online booking experience for travelers. With end-to-end servicing capability, ezTravel can now handle NDC bookings from the moment of reservation to travel servicing. We have observed a steady growth in NDC bookings for SQ, along with the recovery of air traffic in recent years. Despite a good start, several challenges still persist. As we are still in the early stages, many airlines have different understandings of NDC standards, and many of them aim to develop a more dynamic and personalized pricing and ancillary strategy using new technologies. Expanding connections with individual airlines would be more costly than ever before. In the online channel, our top priority will always be data normalization to enable our travelers to compare offers. We will need partners like Amadeus to help us manage the burden and complexity. Additionally, maintaining Edifact content coverage in the coming years is equally important, as it is crucial for a smooth transition when our goal is to seamlessly migrate. During the Kunming event, we had constructive discussions on how we can collectively unlock even greater possibilities for NDC. It is very important for ezTravel to learn as much as possible from our partners, in order to get ahead of our competitors. For example, airlines will continue to evolve their NDC capabilities and roll out attractive offers to different customer segments like frequent travelers, students, seniors etc. to simulate the growth. As an OTA, we have been always keen to evolve our consumer tracking capabilities, therefore we can help to combine our data on customer profile to reach these target customers. Our ambition is to become the most successful NDC OTA in the markets where we operate and we are looking forward to implementing more priority airlines once they are ready for the NDC journey, such as China Eastern, Eva Air, Cathay Pacific and more. It is through industry-level collaboration that we can collectively shape the future of NDC and create a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved.

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Insightful discussions at Mastercard Global Partnerships’ Asia Pacific Travel Forum in Singapore last week. With stakeholders across the travel payments value chain present, it was clear that we face many common challenges. The good news is the willingness that is apparent to work together and innovate in this space. It was great to have the opportunity to bring more awareness to understanding airline and travel intermediary credit risk during my session with Paul van Alfen from Up in the Air | Consultancy.  Understanding the specific nature of travel merchant risk continues to be a pertinent topic for payment providers #issuers #acquirers #insurers that work with these merchants. My main takeaways from the event were: 👉 The importance of education - there continues to be a lack of knowledge around payments in travel and the impacts on each stakeholder 👉More transparency is needed to build trust in the travel payments ecosystem 👉Collaboration remains key – there are a lot more benefits to be realised by working together And of course, thank you to Actuary | Nextgen Credit Risk Monitoring's strategic partner Mastercard Global Partnerships' #travel team for organising a great event! Chris Fendley Chiara Quaia Radu Jibotean Jamie Fu #travelpayments #b2btravelpayments #airlines #travelagents #creditriskmanagement

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Brian Pereira from CIO.inc recently wrote about how Sabre is transforming the travel industry by using AI and cloud technologies, in partnership with Google Cloud, to enhance personalization and predictability in travel experiences. The article discusses how Sabre has migrated all its operations to the cloud and launched AI-driven solutions across airlines, hospitality, and travel agencies. It also highlights how innovations like Sabre Travel AI, SabreMosaic, and SynXis Concierge .AI aim to improve customer experiences, boost operational efficiency, and generate new revenue streams for industry partners. The article includes insights shared by Joe DiFonzo and Sundar Narasimhan during a recent roundtable discussion between Sabre and Google. Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/3UyYRBR #SabreMosaic #SabreTravelAI #AIML #Cloud #Travel #TWMTH

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A couple of my thoughts after reading this article about how Singapore Airlines transitioned to contactless travel as much as possible as the pandemic was coming to a end and current times: - They went for digital options and removed close contact as much as possible like having the menus online rather than on paper - The Singapore Airlines app allows to see different aspects of your travel, from means a week before the flight to having a translator built in when landing in different countries - Also, another feature that the app has that helps out passengers is a AR(Augmented Reality) feature that they can use to check if their luggage is within the weight limit. - This AR feature in the app is important because the passengers do not have to guess whether their luggage is within the weight limit and if they get to the airport and find out that it is over the limit, this feature makes sure that they avoid that worry and rush that they can get and can take care at home before heading to the airport - Allowing passengers to take medical test online and get there results in one place without having to physically go anywhere make it easier and save the passenger time - With digitalization and half of the services being done online, with more being developed, it reduces the risk of getting sick while cutting the time and making the transitions for passengers quicker than before when traveling - With more than half the services on the app like having the boarding pass, medical status, and being able to see the menu a week ahead on the app allows travel to be that much more easier and better for the passenger allowing them to save time because of technology and apps that are always advancing. What are your thoughts? Singapore Airlines #Airbus #Boeing #Travel #Safety #Technology #Medical #Applications

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