A single bundled fare has been created by Flybe to make its New Economy rates easier for agents to book.
Flybe bundles new economy fare to help agents
A single bundled fare has been created by Flybe to make its New Economy rates easier for agents to book.
The tariff offers 10kg hand bag allowance, a free standard sized hold bag, free advance seat selection at the time of booking and a free itinerary change.
The airline has been working with GDS providers to develop a more streamlined solution to make it easier for the trade to process.
Sales director Stephen Hobday said: “Whilst the undoubted benefits of New Economy sell themselves, we nevertheless needed to create a mechanism to save time for TMCs and costs for corporate customers when booking in the GDS.
“With the support of our trade and GDS partners, we are delighted to have now achieved this to everyone’s satisfaction.
“Previously this bundle had to be booked separately to the fare, with an MCO issued and additional SSRs (Special Service Requests) for baggage and other added elements. This has now been loaded as a special fare basis across all distribution channels.”
Travelport head of supplier Europe Robin Ranken added: “The new bundled fares will make it quicker and easier for agents to book and as a GDS that drives efficiencies across the travel supply chain we are excited to be working with Flybe on this latest development.”
Flybe’s move is in contrast to many rival, and also much larger international airlines, which are increasingly looking to turn the existing distribution system on its head by creating their own routes to market to sell their differentiated fare products.
IATA recently announced it was to start a pilot New Distribution Capability API shopping tool following the unanimous backing of 30 of its airline members. Participating airlines are expected to include British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and leading US carriers.
This could revolutionise travel distribution away from price comparison shopping to personalised fares including ancillaries. NDC would sit as an interface between participating airlines and existing fare distributers – primarily the GDSs which service travel agents and travel management companies.
