First View

Competition for the PSS - Piecing Together the New Airline Commercial IT Environment
Following the announcement that FLYR Labs has acquired Newshore, T2RL has noted several companies that have ambitions to expand their offering in the airline commercial IT environment. This First View highlights a few of these companies and what needs to be thought about when entering a space dominated by Amadeus, Sabre and TravelSky.
Date:27/07/2022

Verdict in US Airways vs Sabre - Preserves the Status Quo
On the claim that Sabre's contract with US Airways was anti-competitive the jury found in favour of the GDS company. On the related claim that Sabre operated an unlawful monopoly it found for the airline but awarded a single dollar in compensation. T2RL assesses what this outcome means for airlines, GDSs, technology players and other stakeholders.
Date:23/05/2022

Russian carriers plan migrations to localised alternatives
S7 has announced, via a third-party source, its migration from the Amadeus PSS to Russian provider ORS, formerly known as TAIS. The provider was chosen via a tender process and the migration will take place in October this year. It has been reported by the Russian press that the Russian Ministry of Transport in 2019 ordered all Russian carriers to localise their booking systems. It has also been reported that the date for these forced migrations has been postponed several times. The most recent reports say that carriers are required to localise their booking services by the end of October 2022. This six page T2RL report offers analysis and speculation.
Date:06/05/2022

Is there a Future for Standalone NDC Aggregators?
The Flight Centre Travel Group announced that it has increased its holding in Dubai-based NDC aggregator TP Connects to 70%, giving it a controlling interest. Flight Centre previously held a 22.5% stake which it acquired in February 2020. This first view explores why it could see this as an opportunity and what challenges it and other aggregators may face moving forward.
Date:21/03/2022

A Rapid Retreat from Globalism
All three major GDS companies have announced that they have removed or are removing the schedules and fares of Aeroflot from their databases. This effectively prevents travel agents using Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport selling tickets for the Russian flag-carrier's services. This First View explores the effects this may have and speculates on potential short and longer term impacts of current events.
Date:07/03/2022

Qantas Finding Value in its NDC Investment
Qantas has announced a promotional offer available exclusively to travel agents participating in its NDC channels. The offer provides a specific discount when the agent enters the customer's FFP number in the booking. This First View assesses this announcement and the reasoning behind using such a tactic.
Date:15/02/2022

The Pandemic has been Hardest for Amadeus but it Remains Dominant
The migration of GOL from Amadeus Navitaire to Sabre is the first PSS move of any airline in the top three tiers this year and is the largest airline migration since the pandemic hit 18 months ago. This First View looks at the future strategy of the top three PSS vendors; Amadeus, Sabre and TravelSky and their outlook after the pandemic.
Date:22/09/2021

2021 Vendor Forecast
T2RL has reconciled passenger volumes for the first half of 2021 published by the three largest PSS providers - Amadeus, Sabre & TravelSky - and created a forecast for their full year 2021 passenger volumes. T2RL will continue to research actual passenger volumes and our 2021 vendor forecast will be updated regularly here.
Date:13/09/2021

Revenue Accounting Snapshot 2021
T2RL has recorded the total size of the market for airline revenue accounting systems in 2020 as 1.6 billion passengers boarded, a decline of 59% from 2019. This report takes a snapshot of the current revenue accounting market share for vendors in August 2021 using passenger numbers from 2020.
Date:31/08/2021

A Strategic Year for Hitit
Hitit has recently announced it is gearing up for an IPO in the near future. In what has been a turbulent year for the industry, this First View explores Hitit's activities in the past year.
Date:07/07/2021

2020 Global Passenger Volumes: 1.84 Billion
T2RL has released its assessment of 2020 global passenger volumes showing 1.84 Billion passengers boarded - a 60% decline from 2019's 4.63 billion. This first view includes significant highlights from our 2020 passenger volumes and the impact on passengers boarded by the three largest PSS vendors - Amadeus, Sabre & TravelSky.
Date:17/06/2021

IBS - Leading the Way in Loyalty
IBS has announced that Gulf Air has chosen its iFly Loyalty solution to power its Falconflyer Loyalty programme. This the latest in a string of signings the loyalty vendor has in the pipe. This First View looks at why things are heating up in the loyalty space.
Date:14/04/2021

Outsourcing - One Step Beyond
Amadeus have announced a wide-ranging partnership with Microsoft which will see some or all of its applications moving to the Cloud. This comes a year after Sabre's announcement with Google's cloud hosting. This First View looks at the implications for airlines of these leading IT vendors outsourcing their data hosting.
Date:30/03/2021

Kambr Win Shakes up the RM Market
Kambr, a recent start-up in the revenue management field has won the business of AirAsia, one of the giants of the LCC world.
Date:09/03/2021

2020 Vendor Forecast
In August T2RL reconciled passenger volumes for the first half of 2020 published by the three largest PSS providers - Amadeus, Sabre & TravelSky - and created a forecast for their full year 2020 passenger volumes. T2RL will continue to research actual passenger volumes and our 2020 vendor forecast will be updated regularly here: Vendor Forecast.
Date:25/08/2020

Flexibility key to Recovery for Loyalty Vendors
Along with the rest of the industry, airline loyalty programs are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. This First View looks at why loyalty is a key area to drive recovery.
Date:15/04/2020

Amadeus Scheduling Moves to the Next Level
Amadeus and Optym have announced that the airline network planning business of Optym has been acquired by Amadeus. This First View looks at what this acquisition means for the industry.
Date:17/02/2020

The PSS Market Settles Down - A Bit
T2RL data show 34 airlines changed their PSS provision in 2019, together migrating the management of over two hundred million passengers boarded. T2RL analyse PSS Migration data for 2019, putting this into context with previous years and the vendors who have been the most and least successful over the past five years.
Date:03/02/2020

IBS acquires AD OPT
On September 10, 2019, IBS Software announced that it had completed the acquisition of AD OPT. This First View looks at what this acquisition means for the industry.
Date:25/11/2019

AGIFORS Symposium 2019
The annual Symposium from AGIFORS (Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies) was held in Seattle, USA from September 30 to October 4, 2019. This First View looks at the presentations given at the forefront of tech research in the airline industry.
Date:17/10/2019