Various sessions at theWorld Financial Symposium / World Passenger Symposium will discuss modularity and IT provider collaboration for implementing 100% Offers & Orders.

In essence, modularity in Modern Airline Retailing (MAR) enables airlines to adopt best-of-breed solutions across five distinct business domains, rather than relying on a monolithic Passenger Service System (PSS). Because this transformation is guided by IATA’s Passenger Services Conference (PSC)Reference Business Architecture—published as Recommended Practice RP1786a—airlines can choose and implement one business domain of MAR capability with one vendor, but choose other vendors for subsequent domains.

The five business domains are:

1. Product Management.
2. Offer Management.
3. Order Management.
4. Finance Management.
5. Delivery Management.

Some providers offer solutions across all five domains, while others are specializing in particular fields. Overall, some $1 billion will be invested by solution providers and there are some 48 proofs of concept and pilots in progress. Furthermore, the number of airlines conducting requests for information (RFI) and request for proposals (RFP) has doubled year on year.

Transformation progress

There are numerous examples of the progress being made. Contracts to use Amadeus’ Nevio platform have been signed by Air France / KLM, British Airways, Finnair, and Saudi Arabian Airlines. Sabre has launched SabreMosaic and signed Virgin Australia (VA) in 2024 while Pegasus Airlines is working with fellow Turkish Company, Hitit to offer its passengers personalized, seamless experiences via Hitit’s Oxygen platform.

FLYR, meanwhile, has partnered with Riyadh Air (RX) and integrated with multiple vendors, such as Sabre (Offer Optimization), Sutherland (Order Accounting), and INK (Order Delivery). This strategic partnership between Riyadh Air and several IT providers highlights the rapid progress being made to operate fully native Offer and Order technology based on the IATA RP1786a framework.

Tony Douglas, CEO of Riyadh Air, said the partnership will “deliver a truly personalized and seamless travel experience, exceeding expectations at every step of the journey and offering our guests a virtually unlimited range of options at every touchpoint.”

Riyadh Air customers will have everything they need for their trip in one location, including flights, ancillaries, and even hotels and activities. Importantly, the Order will also be unified based on IATA’s ONE Order standard.

Modularity in Action

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. “At the 1 Octobermultivendor Offers & Orders Demo Dayin Geneva, more than 20 IT providers were involved in demonstrating eight collaborative solutions across the five domains,” says Sebastien Touraine, IATA’s Head, Airline Commercial Systems. “This demonstrated that IT providers are eager to collaborate in delivering the right solutions to airlines and driving retail innovation.”

As it stands, the offer management business domain is the most mature, as it is widely recognized for unlocking the greatest value. Order management is equally vital though as it transitions airlines and their customers from multiple order repositories—including the e-ticket and electronic miscellaneous document—to a single document. This will transform the customer experience, particularly through much better servicing.

Whether airlines rely entirely on providers to implement selected modules, or develop their own modules, will be a business decision. But using IATA RP1786a will be a critical factor in achieving interoperability.

“This is not a technical upgrade, it is a business transformation,” concludes Touraine. “Airlines will require a change management strategy, but the journey has begun. Legacy decommissioning is starting to happen as core solutions go live, and we expect to see some airlines fully operating with Offers & Orders across the five business domains by 2030.”

Ends

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