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PSS: Not an easy choice

Undoubtably 2020 was the worst year in aviation since World War II. We have never seen an industrial downturn to this extent and it will take a long time for our industry to recover and reach pre-COVID volumes and results.

However, crises create opportunities, and we at Travel in Motion GmbH (TiM) are proud that we were able to support an airline in mastering the challenges.

Helvetic Airways is a Swiss-based regional carrier founded in 2003. Since the current owner Martin Ebner took over the airline, three years on Helvetic has become a Swiss success story. The airline has grown to 16 Embraer aircraft, with a clear strategy to mainly operate the latest E190-E2 model. This will provide Helvetic with one of Europe’s most eco-friendly and modern fleets. The airline’s business model is based on three pillars:

  • ACMI and wet-lease operations mainly for Swiss International Air Lines, with the ambition to grow in this business segment and become one of the leading ACMI/wet-lease providers in Europe
  • A very successful (ad hoc) charter business with a strong focus on major European sports clubs
  • Own scheduled flights, under Helvetic’s 2L IATA code. Although their scheduled network has not been extensive in the past, with the performance of the new E190-E2 aircraft, Helvetic can now establish a unique and flexible network, differentiating itself from its competitors.

As scheduled operations may become increasingly important for Helvetic Airways, the team soon realised that the simplistic self-built inhouse PSS was not flexible enough to accelerate this part of the business. Helvetic set up a team, led by Chief Technology Officer Christian Suhner and supported by the Head of PSS, Patrick Brunner. Their aim was to find one of the most innovative, user-friendly and easy to operate PSS systems for their type of airline and route network, with the flexibility to integrate with other components and to extract their own data for analytical purposes. To achieve this, they engaged with TiM to run a PSS replacement project covering all the necessary steps, from summarising Helvetic’s business requirements, running a tender, facilitating vendor sessions, supporting the choice of the final supplier and finalising the vendor contracts.

One key business criterion was the need to be able to seamlessly scale scheduled operations up or down, depending on performance of Helvetic’s ACMI and charter business. In addition, as one of the most modern and technology-driven airlines, Helvetic has the highest requirements for quality and – of course – safety, a philosophy which is summarised well in the airline’s motto: “Swiss quality all along the line”. This has been reflected directly in the selection of the new system, especially in the way Helvetic plans to sell their products: no dependency on legacy aggregation and distribution but being able to distribute directly, connect to new-generation aggregators, being accessible for tour operators, while remaining in control of the offer and order process. In other words, distribution based fully on their direct channels complemented by NDC and direct API connectivity to other distributors and retailers. Rarely does a regional airline have such a clear vision on where they are heading.

  “After the successful evaluation phase with the great support of TiM, we’re currently in the phase of implementing our new PSS platform,” confirms Christian Suhner, Chief Technical Officer of Helvetic Airways. “One that will help us further enhance our product offer, and will also enable us to respond more effectively to market developments. With all this going on in IT terms, plus the continuing renewal of our aircraft fleet, the Helvetic Airways transformations are truly well under way”, he adds.  

Of course, this has not been the first time TiM has successfully delivered such a project, but it was still a very special exercise. Due to the pandemic, only remote interaction was possible with the vendor community. The Helvetic and TiM teams could still physically meet, albeit with social distancing in place, occupying large meeting rooms while sitting in opposite corners. Using TiM’s toolset for understanding and defining the airline’s specific requirements, the tender documents were created. Then, using TiM’s standard model, the tender process was executed. Jointly with the customer, the  the responses were analysed and evaluated based on predefined criteria and weights – fundamental for a successful and fair selection. However, despite the pandemic, such an evaluation still requires close interaction with the various vendors – a pure paper-based evaluation was not sufficient to replace meetings with vendors. As the Helvetic team had not run a PSS procurement process before, evaluating soft in the factors decision-making process was a challenge, especially as many of the vendors ranked relatively equal in the formal evaluation. Thus, the final personal touch, the trust built up through interactions in joint workshops or getting to know one another in face-to-face contract negotiations were missing.

To compensate for this as best as possible, the Helvetic and TiM evaluation teams became MS Teams power users. All vendor sessions were conducted remotely with hours of product demonstrations, reviews, discussions, and negotiations carried out in front of screens and speakers. As the TiM team already knew the various vendors, it was possible to bridge the gap of real face-to-face interaction, however the job still feels somewhat incomplete from a personal interaction perspective.

Helvetic Airways has now completed the process and chosen a new provider for their PSS which supports the uniqueness of the airline. While the project has ended as a success, we think it is safe to say that while remote interaction is possible, it does not replace the need to meet in person, especially if deciding on which system the commercial future of an airline will be based upon. This is just one more reason why the whole team at TiM is looking forward to the re-opening of our industry, allowing us to travel and meet in person again.

Taking Corporate Social Responsibility Seriously

With spring arriving in the Northern hemisphere we are all hoping for the speedy recovery of our industry. Observing the growing vegetation outside also reminds us that we all have a responsibility for the world we live in, our society and the generations to come. At Travel in Motion GmbH, we take this responsibility very seriously, which is why we have our two ongoing sustainability initiatives that we are proud to support.

Firstly, we offset all carbon emissions caused by our air travel. In 2020 we did so by offsetting more than 13 tons of carbon emissions. While it was not the biggest annual amount we have offset in the past, this is the unfortunate result of being unable to meet up with friends, colleagues and customers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our carbon offset contributions went to a reforestation project in Nicaragua as well as something closer to home – the renaturation of Swiss alpine moorlands.

But our corporate social responsibility does not stop with carbon compensation. For many years, we have committed ourselves to donating 1% of our revenue each quarter to charity. In 2018 we launched our “1% For The Future” programme, which enables us to support charitable organisations around the globe. One such organisation is “We Care 4“, a Swiss NGO which helps Kenyan families in need by financing their children’s education. To help us, and hopefully you, gain an understanding of how we can help, we interviewed the Co-Founder and President of the organisation, Natalie Hungerbühler. We will be publishing this interview in a few weeks, and hope you take the time to listen to what Natalie has to say. But one thing we can already say about this is that it was a great experience, and we were really touched to see how our contributions support some of the poorest families on our planet. To our customers of the past few years, we’d like to say a big thank you, because our contribution is also your contribution. Supporting these projects is only possible because you give us the trust in doing business with us.

Revenue Management Forecasting

March 11, 2021

As we are getting towards the end of the first quarter of 2021, we can see that air traffic is picking up and that several projects are being revamped. But fundamental to a sustainable restart is the recovery of passenger revenues, and particularly a proper forecast of the revenues to come. To give some insight, our Managing Partner Andrea Riesen has summarised her thoughts on Revenue Management (RM) Forecasting in a TiM QuickView paper. It provides an excellent overview of forecasting best practices and guides the reader from the theoretical background of RM to a best practice approach, where Andrea shares her experiences from working within various airline revenue management departments. Feel free to download your personal copy of the whitepaper here.

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Season Break and new Co-Owners of TiM

Dear partners and friends

2020 has been a very challenging year for all of us. Our industry went through the worst crisis ever, with many airlines being forced to cease operations and countless people losing their jobs. However, much more importantly, some of us lost loved ones due to the pandemic. We cannot end this year without remembering them.

In crises and difficult times, it’s easy to tell who your true partners and friends are. It has been an invaluable and enriching experience for us at Travel in Motion in 2020. Although our business was also rather challenged, we still managed to have excellent exchanges, discussions and interesting projects with many of you – we were not let down, and we want to thank you all for this.

The new year is starting to look more promising: vaccinations might lead to an easing of the crisis, and we have good reason to believe that a recovery will come. We at TiM are looking forward to 2021, as we are convinced that aviation will remain one of the key industries in our global economy. This crisis has forced our industry to become more digital, agile and interconnected – attributes which are also the focus of our work. Thus, we’re already looking forward to working with as many of you as possible next year in whatever capacity we can support you.

As we are optimistic for the next year, and many to come, we have decided to set up Travel in Motion GmbH a little differently. We are proud to announce that Andrea Riesen and Boris Padovan have become co-owners of Travel in Motion, as they both share our long term vision and goals. As we continue to remain busy, having Andrea and Boris on board not only as team members but also as owners, shows our commitment and belief in our industry.
With these mixed emotions, the whole Travel in Motion team would like to thank you again for 2020 and wish you, your families, friends and colleagues a happy Season Break and a healthy, safe and prosperous New Year!

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Airline Digital Retail – Vendors’ View on Challenges and Opportunities of the COVID Crisis

September 2020 – The airline industry has been hard hit by the global Covid-19 pandemic. Airlines have grounded their fleets, or reduced their capacity by 60, 70% or more. Since March 2020, travel has drastically changed, and the market is very slow to recover. At the time of this blog post at the end of September 2020, we are seeing a very slow recovery in the global air transportation market. For some domestic markets, things look a lot better, especially for China where domestic travel is at over 90% of the capacity it was one year ago, thanks in large parts to their effective management of the pandemic as well as government stimulus to travel.

Basically, the airlines’ opportunity to sell travel and related ancillary services has become almost impossible. However, it is not yet time to give up. Governments have been helping airlines through loans, while the airlines themselves have been streamlining their operations and reducing their fixed costs and their fleets. They are also becomming innovative and creative, offering products which are pandemic-compliant, giving customers the opportunity to travel more safely, rebook when necessary and protecting their staff from direct interaction with customers where there are other possibilities. Two such examples are the sales of free middle seats and a charge for checking in in person at the airport. Now, while neither is new, both of these product have been given considerable boosts through the pandemic, and more airlines have decided to offer these as a result of Covid-19. Supporting the airlines through the crisis are also the technology solution providers. They too are suffering from the loss of key revenue streams, however, have an invested interest in supporting their airline customers in the recovery.

Travel in Motion took this opportunity to talk to five of the leading airline digital retailers to gain an understanding of how this pandemic is affecting them, and how they are helping their airline customers get through this. We also heard a lot of considerations around how this is affecting their own companies and their respective strategies and key learnings. Except for the last podcast, which was moderated by Boris Padovan, Principal Consultant at TiM, the interviews were conducted by Daniel Friedli, Managing Director of Travel in Motion.

A final session with all five participants will close this series of TiM’s podcasts. In this 45 minute “virtual” panel we will jointly reflect on the consequences of this global disruption and discuss learnings for the overall aviation industry. This podcast will be conducted after the five individual interviews have been published.

We kicked off our discussion with Jim Davidson, Chief Product Officer at Accelya. After the acquisition of Farelogix through Accelya, Jim has taken the challenge to work on setting up Accelya to offer end-to-end retailing, from offers to selling, delivery to settlement.
Our favourite quote from Jim: The concept of retailing is proven to be resistant even to the pandemic… the concept is still trying to match those services that are best equipped to the needs of the flying customer.” Listen to our interview with Jim.

In the second podcast, we discussed these topics with Sean Corkery, CEO of Datalex. Having gone through a large transformation programme in 2019, they had already set themselves up to be very efficient and delivery focused.
Our favourite quote from Sean:This is not a time for gain, this is a time for really underlining your value-add to your customers.Listen to our interview with Sean.

The third interview was with Bryan Porter, Chief Commercial Officer of OpenJaw Technologies. OpenJaw is in the privileged situation to have a considerable part of their business in China, in which the domestic market is recovering faster than anywhere else in the world.
Our favourite quote from Bryan: Reassurance has become the watch-word for recovery.Listen to our interview with Bryan.

PROSSurain Adyanthaya was our fourth guest. With PROS’ growing ecosystem from revenue management to airline digital retailing solutions, their view on the market, especially with the insights into their customers’ revenue management strategies, was very interesting.
Our favourite quote from Surain: The key to success for airlines is to be nimble and flexible. Things happen!

Finally, we spoke with Andy Kidd from SAP. Andy outlined how airlines, especially in Asia, have circled toward digital, and how this will benefit them in these challenging times. He further elaborates on how the customer experience is affected and can be improved with ONE Order.
Our favourite quote from Andy: The majority, if not all airlines, have a digital transformation programme but what we’ve seen in retail is that some companies have accelerated what was years into months…

For the final session we are looking forward to hosting Jim, Sean, Bryan, Surain and Andy. It will certainly be an interesting discussion and we hope that it will gain more insights for our industry community.

These podcasts will be released in the upcoming weeks, one per week, on Mondays. The first podcast will be released on Monday, 5 October. Each subsequent release will be available on the Travel in Motion website. If you would like to be notified of each podcast, subscribe to our newsletter here.

Airline PSS Decisions – Challenge and Opportunity!

PSS Decisions Airlines need to take

There is no airline which has not been hit hard by the current global health crisis. The results for the airlines are challenging and in many cases devastating. Based on all the challenges, it probably is not at the front of the CCO’s mind to think about the Passenger Service System (PSS) right now. Or, maybe for some it is. In many cases, stakeholders are now thinking about how they can make the airline more efficient and, amongst other things, automate more processes to cope with these kinds of situations and reduce costs. Also, with much of the initial hectic related to rebooking and refunds, alongside figuring out where the fleet is and should be going (and not going) now behind us, thoughts must be focused on the future of the airline.

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