Merchandising Overview

Airlines are continuing to gain more control of ticket distribution with the proportion of tickets sold via directly controlled channels increasing. They are on track to directly control most of ticket sales in the next few years, if the present progress is maintained.

Currently, ancillary services are primarily sold through airlines own distribution channels. This will remain the main channel enabling expansion of ancillary revenues for a long time.

Two trends are obvious:

Airlines already engaged in ancillary revenue activities are bringing more products to market. This occurs through the introduction of new a la carte features, commission based travel content and the inclusion of distribution methods beyond the carrier’s website.

1. Many of these airlines are becoming savvy retailers. Branding has been emphasized, pricing is more sophisticated, and an increasing number of features are presented during the booking process.

2. The Web has provided airlines an enhanced degree of direct customer interaction, but to truly meet traveler requirements, they need to expand their offerings to become full-fledged online travel retailers.

“It is no longer a question of who sells the flight ticket, but rather who owns the customer.”

Crane TM (Airline Travel Marketplace), the next generation, multi-lingual and multi-currency travel marketplace platform enables airlines; set-up a travel marketplace for its Tour Operator and OTA partners to create and sell leisure and business travel packages combined with airline’s competitive flights.