The Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) has acquired US technology Routehappy, a ‘rich content’ provider for carriers, in a deal that could mark a significant step in transforming airline distribution.
The acquisition, the first in ATPCO’s 53-year history, will see the principal global distributor of fare data for global distribution systems (GDSs) develop merchandising solutions for ancillary products and bundled fares across multiple channels.
ATPCO is owned by a consortium of airlines including British Airways and Iberia parent IAG, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, and it files the fares and pricing rules of more than 430 carriers, involving almost 90% of worldwide ticket sales.
But leading carriers are looking to develop new distribution channels with technology providers other than the GDSs using airline association Iata’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) standard.
At the same time Lufthansa, BA and Iberia have introduced surcharges on bookings via GDSs and Air France-KLM plans to introduce a surcharge from April.
BA head of global sales Stephen Humphreys told the UK’s Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC) in November: “Airlines file over 100 million fares through ATPCO to distribute through GDSs. Think of the work involved in that. It’s hardly dynamic.
“We are constrained. We can be far more tailored and targeted.”
New York-based Routehappy, founded in 2011, provides content from more than 300 airlines via APIs [application programme interfaces] to companies including United Airlines, Sabre, Expedia and Google.
It displays rich or ancillary content under such terms as ‘amenities’, ‘Universal Product Attributes’ (UPAs) and ‘Universal Ticket Attributes’ (UTAs).
ATPCO said it aims to make Routehappy an industry standard “to rapidly accelerate the adoption of rich content”.
Jerry Foran, ATPCO chairman and head of product delivery and revenue management at British Airways, said: “Airline merchandising is rapidly evolving, as rich content is more widely adopted across both NDC and traditional distribution models.
“As an industry, we want travellers to be able to see and trust the differences between flight options.
“This acquisition is an example of how ATPCO is executing on its promise to fuel the future of airline distribution.”
ATPCO president and chief executive Rolf Purzer added: “Routehappy has created an offering that solves many of the challenges airlines encounter in delivering consistent messaging, branding, and merchandising through multiple distribution channels.
“By aligning Routehappy’s rich content with ATPCO’s fare and pricing data, airlines can ensure consistent and differentiated offers for their products in every sales channel.”
United Airlines director of distribution Tye Radcliffe said: “Routehappy has helped United differentiate our products and services. The tools Routehappy offers enable a more seamless shopping experience for travel agents and customers.”
Routehappy founder and chief executive Robert Albert, who will continue to lead the company, said ATPCO would “allow Routehappy to become an industry standard for airline rich content worldwide”.
He added: “We now have a clear path to help the industry transform.”
However, the transformation will not be overnight. Albert said content “is not all going to be integrated within one magic pipe”.
Routehappy will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of ATPCO. The terms of the acquisition were undisclosed.