Driving Airline Digital Transformation: What Certified Status in the IATA Airline Retailing Maturity (ARM) Index Means

Airlines have always chased more effective ways to reach customers, improve their experience, and convert them into loyal, repeat customers. Two decades ago, the big push was to personalize the travel experience for frequent flyer members with personal touches, such as placing an issue of Golf Digest on the seat of a customer who was traveling with golf clubs. Around the same time, airlines were looking to increase direct bookings, allowing them to have more control over the prices they offered to travelers.

The industry has come a long way since then, and airlines are focused more than ever on improved sales, higher margins, and stronger brand loyalty. Airlines understand and agree that “becoming retailers” will enable them to provide personalized products to their customers, at dynamically calculated prices, to improve conversion rates and meet their objectives.

To be able to support this transformation, airlines need enabling technologies and tools grounded in standards that allow for frictionless communication across the elements of the ecosystem. They also need rich content that is under their complete control. The International Airline Transportation Association (IATA), a trade association of airlines around the world, has been working with airlines and vendors to set these standards in the industry to facilitate the shift to digital retailing.

As the standards are evolving, so is the process of tracking the maturity of the retailing capabilities supported by companies who wish to adhere to those standards. PROS is now part of a list of designated providers certified in the new IATA Airline Retailing Maturity (ARM) index, indicating that we are capable of using specific APIs to assist airlines in their own transformation projects. This designation recognizes that our offer and order management solutions support deployments using shop/order/pay capabilities, which are compliant with the standard enhanced and simplified distribution message schema.

Surain Adyanthaya, the President, Travel at PROS, comments that “Airlines that power their retailing capabilities with the PROS Platform for Travel have access to next generation technology and AI that create compelling offers for every customer segment. The goal is to have rich customer engagements that maximize revenue, while improving customer satisfaction and conversion.”

With the ability to push an AI-based retail experience to any channel, PROS offer and order management solutions for airlines are continuously evolving to empower airlines to improve the quality and content of their offers while boosting margin and revenue at the same time. PROS optimized product offerings are further distinguished with the power of marketing and promotion, strengthened by our recent acquisition of EveryMundo.

PROS is excited to be a part of the IATA ARM index and bring proof of capabilities to our prospects and customers.

You can learn more about the PROS Platform for Travel solutions here.