TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY
Plusgrade | February 23, 2023
Plusgrade, the global travel industry's premier provider of ancillary revenue solutions, recently announced the acquisition of UpStay, a growing upgrade and ancillary revenue solutions provider for the hospitality industry. UpStay supports hundreds of hotels throughout 17 countries by aiding hoteliers in growing ancillary revenue by delivering numerous value-added revenue streams to their guests.
Since its inception in 2019, UpStay has been acknowledged for its innovative technology, receiving the 2021 People's Choice Innovation Award (Phocuswright Travel Awards) and the 2022 World's Best Hotel Tech Startup (World Travel Tech Awards).
Plusgrade's acquisition of Points, the global leader in powering loyalty commerce, brought together two of the largest ancillary revenue solutions under one umbrella. Now, the company has initiated a new phase of rapid expansion. By adding UpStay, which provides hotel upgrades and other ancillary revenue solutions, to its portfolio, enhances its ability to deliver comprehensive and diverse services to its global customer base.
This move positions Plusgrade to make a more significant impact on travel businesses worldwide, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction. UpStay will be incorporated into the Plusgrade brand over the next few weeks and will operate as Plusgrade going forward.
Ken Harris, CEO of Plusgrade, shared, "The acquisition of UpStay is another step forward for our vision and mission of becoming the Global Ancillary Revenue Powerhouse." He adds, "We have been accelerating this mission through a series of innovations, launches and acquisitions, and have come into 2023 as a powerhouse for the global travel industry. We are thrilled to have the UpStay team join us, and look forward to tapping into their expertise and innovative technology to bring even more value to our now 200+ airline, hospitality, cruise, rail and financial services partners around the world."
(Source – PR Newswire)
About Plusgrade
Plusgrade offers a portfolio of premium ancillary revenue solutions that power the travel industry. With over 200 clients from various sectors, including airline, cruise, passenger rail, hospitality, and financial services, the company creates new, meaningful revenue streams by delivering exceptional customer experiences. As an ancillary revenue powerhouse, it has created new revenue opportunities worth billions of dollars across its platform, enhancing travel experiences for millions of passengers and guests. Founded in 2009 with headquarters in Montreal, the organization has a global presence with offices located worldwide.
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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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TRAVEL TECHNOLOGY, DESTINATION AND TOURISM
WorldTicket | January 24, 2023
Aeroitalia reported today that it is connecting with WorldTicket to offer more travel options in the European region.
Aeroitalia would broaden its internal sales reach to include OTAs and travel agencies. This integration would fulfill the increasing demands for travel in Europe. For example, according to a report by ENIT, international visitors to Italy's tourist agency increased by 172% from January to July 2022 and 57% from pre-pandemic levels. This growth in demand is expected to continue in the future thereby, generating more possibility for Aeroitalia to provide non-stop, high-quality air travel at reasonable prices in Italy and the Southern Mediterranean. Furthermore, it can now quickly sell flights through any GSD and successfully offer seasonal itineraries, especially summer routes. Hence, it is a genuine adaptive business that adapts according to its customer’s demands.
"Aeroitalia is committed to delivering outstanding service to passengers which incorporate easy access for our product, especially for our business customers," says Krassimir Tanev, Chief Commercial Officer of Aeroitalia and further adds that "Multichannel distribution is an important development as it goes hand-in-hand with our network expansion plans for summer 2023. Thanks to our marketing partnership with WorldTicket and its global distribution technology, Aeroitalia services are now closer to the travel agency community to the benefit of our customers."
(Source – Cision PR Newswire)
Aeroitalia connects unserved and underserved markets through travel options like six days per week, connecting Italy's two largest cities, Milan and Rome, and routing Milan and London Heathrow. By integrating with WorldTicket's technologies, it can establish business in these markets swiftly and affordably.
Moreover, it can also enhance its distribution capability with the help of WorldTicket's GDS Sub-Hosting solutions. Thus, making it the principal air travel agency in Europe.
About WorldTicket:
WorldTicket has provided creative and flexible IT solutions to over 75 airlines globally since 2002. With offices in Bangkok, Kyiv, Warsaw, and Beijing, this Copenhagen-based company supports airline consumers across various time zones. Besides, WorldTicket's W2 GDS Sub-Hosting is suited for start-ups and virtual airlines needing fast and easy GDS distribution without extensive implementation or upfront costs. It also offers W2 ticketing for Global BSP Ticketing. The technology lets its interline partners maximize global ticketing benefits and boost earnings from remote and non-strategic BSP areas.
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