AIRLINES AND AIRPORTS, INDUSTRY OUTLOOK
FLYR Labs | January 30, 2023
FLYR Labs, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven forecasting, pricing, and commercial-wide decision-making solutions provider, recently partnered with Brazilian airline Azul to implement FLYR's advanced AI technologies. The technologies will enhance the airline's revenue management strategy, beginning with fare bundles and ancillary product optimization, addressing the growing customer demands.
FLYR will provide Azul with comprehensive pricing, data management, and forecasting capabilities that enable personalized offers for customers to assist the airline in achieving its goal of allowing total revenue management and dynamic offer optimization.
Azul's primary source of profit is the sale of ancillary products such as priority boarding, seat selection, luggage, and fare families. The AI-based Revenue Optimization solution offered by FLYR combines all available historical and real-time data with deep learning algorithms to determine the ideal pricing and distribution strategy.
The solution from FLYR will enable Azul to provide real-time prices for each customer's shopping request or as a scheduled continuous price. This allows the airline to provide travelers with the right ancillaries at the perfect price, with little change to the present shopping infrastructure. It also predicts anticipated revenues for each flight, all within an intuitive user interface.
Since its start in 2008, Azul has been the fastest-growing airline in Brazil, and it now has the country's largest airline network in terms of cities served, with flights to over 150 destinations. Alex Mans, Founder and CEO of FLYR, commented, "We're excited to partner with Azul and harness the power of AI to improve their revenue management and offerings for customers." He added, "The limitations of legacy technology mean airlines have historically struggled to understand how changes in fares can affect ancillary revenues. Through our partnership, we will provide Azul with a crucial competitive advantage when it comes to boosting profitability and enhancing the customer experience."
(Source – GlobeNewswire)
About FLYR Labs
Based in Santa Monica (California), FLYR Labs provides airlines with the intelligence and insight they need to make the best-informed decisions through its proprietary Revenue Operating System. Its vertically integrated platform combines data, forecasting, reporting, pricing, and simulation capabilities into a "single pane of glass" that informs and automates all commercial functions. The company solves complex problems with brilliantly engineered solutions that rely on end-to-end Managed Data Infrastructure and deep learning (AI) to assist leading airlines worldwide in achieving their full potential.
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DESTINATION AND TOURISM, COMMERCIAL TRAVEL
KAYAK | January 27, 2023
KAYAK, the leading search engine for travel, recently announced that it has partnered with Affirm, a payment network, to make its payment operations flexible and to empower its travelers in the United States.
According to KAYAK search data, flight prices are rising by about 40% per year. Despite increased flight prices, travelers are still searching for flight bookings in 2023. With Affirm, KAYAK is making it easier for travelers to plan and pay for their trips this year. Now, approved KAYAK travelers can split the cost of flights, hotels, car rentals, and car sharing over $150 into monthly payments by choosing Affirm when they check out. Thus, KAYAK can reach 15 million of Affirm's consumers and 245,000 merchants, including American Airlines, Priceline, Vrbo, Vacasa, and more thereby, enhancing its new reach, overall sales, repurchase rates, and average order value.
Paul Jacobs, General Manager and Vice President of KAYAK North America, says, "It's good to have choices, especially in this economy. In addition to showing travelers all their options on KAYAK, Affirm gives travelers the ability to plan how they pay."
(Source – Business Wire)
Geoffrey Kott, Chief Revenue Officer at Affirm, remarks, "This past fall, Affirm's consumers increased purchases at airlines over seven times compared to the prior year, demonstrating higher consumer demand for payment flexibility when booking travel." He adds, "By partnering with KAYAK, we are able to bring consumers a flexible and transparent way to pay for travel, especially at a time when many are looking for ways to regain financial control and spending power amidst rising costs."
(Source – Business Wire)
About KAYAK:
KAYAK is part of Booking Holdings Inc, one of the world's most prominent search engines for travel. It helps people find the vacation package, hotel, rental or shared car, and flights they want. The company enables travelers to search for the best flight deals and book with flexibility, as it's pretty reliable and completely free to use. With trip planning tools like a flight tracker, trip planner, and bag measure, KAYAK ensures that travelers' overall experience is more than just a flight search site!
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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY, COMMERCIAL TRAVEL
CLEAR | January 25, 2023
On January 24, 2023, the consumer services company - CLEAR launched its identity verification technology at Long Beach Airport, making travelers' identity screening quick and effortless.
CLEAR's network is specialized to verify the identities of its members by scanning their eyes or fingers instead of identity proofs like a driver's license. After verification, the CLEAR ambassador will take the member through a specific lane to TSA physical security. It will save the time of the member waiting for security screening approval. This new launch is set to generate a profit of around 1.2 million dollars, along with creating 23 job opportunities.
Members, who opt for the CLEAR Plus feature, will get access to this new identity-verification technology, which would cost around $16 per month, billed annually. This membership is discounted for American Express, United Airlines, and Delta Air Lines members. The newly-registered active members who are military, veterans, and government officials will also be charged less. Besides, the member can also add family members to their CLEAR Plus account, which would cost $60 for one adult per year.
CLEAR's CEO, Caryn Seidman-Becker, said, "California continues to be an incredibly important market for CLEAR, and we're excited to kick off 2023 by further expanding our footprint in Southern California. Launching at Long Beach Airport means locals and tourists alike can enjoy our predictable, friction-free travel experience in even more places – which is all part of our mission to transform the way people live, work and travel."
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
About CLEAR
CLEAR has been making identity verification frictionless since 2010. Its new lanes are accessible at San Diego International Airport, Ontario International Airport, Palm Springs International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, and Long Beach Airport. In addition, the company also features a free LAX Fast Lane, a virtual queueing pilot. This feature allows travelers to plan ahead of time and even book a time slot for a party at the security checkpoint.
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