Airline offer and order systems set to transform how we buy tickets

In June, my children and I flew from Singapore to Texas to visit family.

Several weeks later, we met up with my husband in New York City. Then I flew, solo, back to Asia, later followed by my husband. Eventually the kids returned with a set of grandparents in tow.

All in, our summer trip took seven separate bookings to pull off — a twisted mix of one-way tickets and return trips — sometimes among people on the same flight.

But the flexibility needed to avoid this booking ordeal, which took half a day to execute, is not only possible — it exists today, said Alex Mans, CEO of the travel tech company Flyr.

His company aims to transform airlines from reservation system operators to modern digital retailers that function more like Amazon and Spotify, he told “Squawk Box Asia” Friday.

A key feature of this change is a familiar one, he said: the shopping cart.

“We are used to a shopping cart in almost every retailing experience we know — physical and digital — yet airlines are still following this very traditional linear flow when you book and manage your flights,” he said.

Shopping carts allow flyers to buy different flights at the same time, and passengers within the same booking to choose different seat classes, luggage allowances and preferences like priority boarding, he said.

He referenced a CNBC Travel article about the number of business travelers who are, often quietly, taking their family and friends with them on work trips.

“You might be able to fly in the business cabin because your company’s paying, but your family might fly in premium economy,” he said. “You couldn’t do that today on a traditional reservation system. You’d have to make two bookings.”

Next-generation booking systems, being developed by Flyr as well as other industry players such as Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport, are helping to move airlines beyond legacy PSS, or “passenger service system” technology, to “offer and order management” systems.

The promise is a more personalized and flexible booking process, where passengers can easily change and refund purchases by themselves, with the option of buying more than just flights.

“We are helping airlines natively, so in their own website, sell hotels, car rentals, activities, insurance, even e-sims, if you go abroad, for example,” he said. “This allows an airline to compete much more with the travel agents, especially the online travel agents.”

A major test of this new system is set to occur later this year with the launch of Riyadh Air. The Saudi Arabia-based carrier, through a partnership with Flyr, will be launched without PPS technology, making it the first “digitally native” airline in the world, Mans said.

“Riyadh Air will be the world’s first airline to actually get rid, or not even launch with, this legacy technology,” he said, in a direct challenge to the long-held industry view that such tech is necessary to support travel agent distribution and connectivity to other airlines.

Offer and order management systems are a key part of the airline industry’s push for new distribution capability to personalize booking offers and increase airline revenue.

By next year, around 30% of sales are expected to come from new distribution capabilities, according to an Amadeus Insights Travel Technology Investment Trends report.

In that report, more than one in five airlines said that transitioning to becoming a retailer is one of the top three biggest priorities in airline technology today.