In-depth Analysis

Service Management SLA Evolution and the use of Artificial Intelligence
This is a follow up to our original report on IT Service Governance published in 2020 titled SLA Design in a Complex IT EcoSystem. T2RL has undertaken further analysis of the prevailing standards in the industry, as well as emerging practices and the evolution of both experience-based service levels and artificial intelligence. This allows us to understand how service management is changing in the greater IT industry with the challenges of new service architectures and commercial models and what further improvements are required to help achieve better business outcomes, especially for the airline industry.
22/04/2025

Mapping the Old to the New
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.
01/04/2025

Managing Ancillary Revenue Report 2025
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.
26/03/2025

Loyalty in the New World - The Market for Airline Loyalty Management Systems
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.
11/03/2025

Airline Arrivals and Departures 2024
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.
31/01/2025

Challenges to Growth - Business Almost as Usual
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.
13/01/2025

Offer, Order, Settle, Deliver Status Report December 2024
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.
09/01/2025

Digital Marketing Report 2024: The Market for Online Direct Passengers
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.
09/01/2025

Global Passenger Volumes Projections 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.
20/11/2024

PSS Vendor Forecast 2024
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.
12/11/2024

Offer, Order, Settle, Deliver Status Report October 2024
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.
30/10/2024

The Market for Airline Distribution 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.
09/10/2024

The Travel Distribution Aggregator Market 2024
T2RL has been tracking the travel distribution aggregator market since 2021. The initial review included a small sample of aggregators and each year this data has improved with more being included. In the past the aggregators which have been providing content that could not be easily sourced through the GDSs have been the most successful. With airlines now aiming to offer additional content through NDC including offers/bundles and dynamic pricing, as well as some airlines placing surcharges on NDC GDS content it will be interesting to see how this market evolves.
23/09/2024

The Market for Airline Retailing and Delivery Systems
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.
23/09/2024

Airline Payment Developments: Key Trends and Innovations in 2024
As a follow up to our earlier report on the Evolving Dynamics of Airline Payments, this report, based on T2RL interviews and data gathered from 17 leading airlines, looks into the key trends and innovations in airline payments. It focuses on the evolving landscape, emerging technologies and strategies for airlines to meet changing consumer preferences and drive revenue.
18/09/2024

Offer, Order, Settle, Deliver Status Report - August 2024
T2RL produces quarterly reports on the status of Offer, Order, Settle, Deliver developments as the airline industry makes steps to move towards a new retailing environment. This includes details of new implementations, distribution and IT developments for airlines and vendors and the impact these may have on the market.
10/09/2024

Delivery in an Order Management World
This report written by T2RL, in collaboration with Ink Innovation, describes a new approach to delivery for airlines that are modernising their commercial technology along Offer, Order, Settle, Deliver structure.
03/09/2024

International and Domestic Passenger Traffic
This report includes T2RL's analysis on the domestic and international passenger traffic market for 2023, based on data of over 1000 airlines globally. In 2023, both domestic and international traffic witnessed an increase of 28% and 35% respectively from 2022. When compared to 2019 traffic levels, domestic traffic managed to surpass pre-pandemic levels by 1.4% however international traffic still falls short by 7.4%.
16/07/2024

Transformation Series - Delivering on the Promise
This is the sixth in a series of reports that T2RL is publishing on the transformation that is finally under way in how airlines sell and deliver their services. There is a growing consensus that traditional processes based on technologies dating back to the middle of the 20th century need a significant update. In these reports we describe the new structures and, more importantly, describe the path that the industry will have to take in order to implement them. This instalment considers the changes that will be necessary in delivery systems if the full promise of new commercial processes is to be realised at the point where the customer accesses the services sold.
08/07/2024

Evolving Dynamics of Airline Payments
The airline industry has experienced significant shifts in payment systems, especially accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This report, based on T2RL interviews and data gathered from 17 leading airlines, provides a detailed examination of the changes and strategic adaptations within airline payment processes, focusing on the integration of advanced technologies and the shift toward direct sales channels.
02/07/2024