Insight Articles

The transformation of airline commercial processes and technologies to an environment based on Orders rather than PNRs and tickets is now under way. Historically many airlines have acquired their central commercial systems from a single provider in the form of a Passenger Services System (PSS). This includes the core functions of inventory, reservations, ticketing and check-in. They may add other systems such as revenue management or internet booking engines which access the database of the PSS and augment its functions.

In the world of Offer Order Settle Deliver, which is also referred to as Modern Airline Retailing, some airlines will continue to buy a comprehensive service from a single vendor. However there is an expectation, not least from the standards-setting body, IATA, that it will be open to airlines to acquire technology in a modular manner and combine components from multiple vendors to create a unique commercial stack.

The purpose of this document is to identify where in the OOSD environment familiar functionality will be located. In many cases there will not be a simple one-to-one correlation between the old and the new.

This report marks the start of T2RL's coverage of the market for revenue management and dynamic pricing of ancillary products. This market is beginning to emerge as more airlines see ancillary revenue increasing in importance. It is now possible to justify the investment required to optimise the revenue derived from non-flight products. Most of the vendors associated with revenue management of flights have launched initiatives to bring ancillary revenue into their scope but it is too soon to draw any conclusions about which of them will be most successful in this new field.

This is the fifth edition of T2RL's report on the market for airline loyalty systems. This report is published in February 2025, using current contract data, passenger volume projections, and loyalty member information from 2024 to assess the market.

The report assesses the main providers in the market for airline loyalty, highlighting major changes and investments. Market share information is based on annual projected 2024 passenger and loyalty member data and takes into account current migrations and implementations as at 21st February 2025. T2RL tracks market share for loyalty systems providers in three ways; by number of airlines served, by the passenger volumes carried by those airlines and by the number of members enrolled in the programmes. Each method is valid and the relative performance measured by volume and by membership track each other fairly closely. However there are exceptions, especially where an airline has developed extensive third party participation in its programme and the tables at the end of this report reveal where those exceptions lie.

This is T2RL's 8th edition of the Airline Arrivals and Departures Report. The seventh edition was published in February 2024. It will examine the comings and goings in the aviation industry highlighting how the market has stabilised since the Covid-19 pandemic and featuring our predictions for 2025.

This is T2RL's annual assessment of the outlook for the airline industry with particular emphasis on information technology. The establishment of this report was a response to the crisis brought on by the Covid 19 pandemic but it is increasingly clear that there are many other strategic challenges that impact airlines' business plans and the technology they adopt.

This is the fifth edition of T2RL's report on the market for online direct passengers, specifically those booked via airline Internet Booking Engines (IBE). This edition, published in January 2025, describes the state of the market using current contract data along with passenger volume information relating to 2023 and projected figures for full year 2024. Our projection for 2024 shows that online direct passenger numbers are now running significantly higher than the 2.02 billion reached in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic.

This report is part of T2RL's series of updates on the progress of modernising airline sales and fulfilment technology. The focus remains on IATA's New Distribution Capability (NDC) and ONE Order initiatives, key components of the broader movement towards a retail-oriented approach within the airline industry. This edition reflects developments up to December 2024.

T2RL forecasts that global passenger volumes will reach 4.82 billion in 2024, a projected 9.83% rise from the 4.39 billion passengers in 2023. This figure now surpasses pre-pandemic levels by 4%, following several years of unprecedented disruption.

This notable recovery has been driven by several factors, including the return of international travel in regions such as Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and the growth of domestic travel in key markets like China and North America.

The airline industry in 2024 is navigating a complex landscape of recovery, technological change, and sustainability challenges. As we approach the end of 2024, global passenger numbers are projected to be 4% higher than 2019 traffic, the first year of complete recovery from the effects of the pandemic.

T2RL has reconciled passenger volumes for the first half of 2024 published by the five largest PSS providers - Amadeus, Sabre TravelSky, Sirena Travel and Hitit - and created a forecast for their full year 2024 passenger volumes.

This report is part of T2RL's series of updates on the progress of modernising airline sales and fulfilment technology. The focus remains on IATA's New Distribution Capability (NDC) and ONE Order initiatives, key components of the broader movement towards a retail-oriented approach within the airline industry. This edition reflects developments up to October 2024.

The pendulum swung back slightly from direct to indirect distribution as markets recovered in 2023. But underneath that top level finding there were significant changes by region and by business model. This report breaks down the numbers across all regions and all business models.

Following fifteen annual editions of the T2RL market report on Passenger Services Systems this is the first publication of a new report. The need to change the way that we describe the market has come about due to the widespread acknowledgement that the traditional PSS will be replaced by systems based on Offer-Order-Settle-Deliver over the next few years. This report will describe market positioning of traditional PSS vendors and systems but it will also identify the moves towards the new standards. We expect that the next few editions will show a gradual migration of airlines to OOSD. We intend to give an insight into the challenges and opportunities faced by airlines and vendors as they plan and implement their move to OOSD. Market share information for PSS is based on 2023 annual passenger volumes adjusted to include current migrations and implementations as of 1st August 2024. Market share information for OOSD is currently too limited for useful trends to be observed. That will change over the coming years.