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All-female ATPCO team takes a Detour and is honored at Hackathon

atpco planejanes

ATPCO’s all-female team earned top regional honors at the recent virtual hackathon by creating an app that not only makes it easy to understand health practices by flight, but also expands destination inspiration. The win proves that bringing leaders from product, tech, and commercial teams together is part of the recipe for success.

Virtual hackathon teams work together while being apart
The travel industry is done grieving over the pandemic aftereffects and is now ready to actively work on the solutions that would help to reclaim travel, explained the hackathon organizers during the opening ceremony. 

During quarantines, these travel and tourism veterans organized this virtual hackathon to look for opportunities during this period of serious uncertainty and disruption. Driven by the mission to galvanize the doers and the dreamers, <Trave/Scrum> encourages the industry to imagine and deploy innovative, safe, and sustainable experiences for travelers.

At the first travel industry hackathon since the pandemic, more than 430 participants submitted 86 ideas that address the themes Hygiene & Health, Travel & Experiences, and Sustainability & Relief.

ATPCO’s Detour helps find your slice of paradise  
Detour, the app developed by ATPCO’s PlaneJanes team, helps travelers find destinations with the best deals that match their travel aspirations, taking into considerations all health, safety, and other restrictions. 

Built with pricing standards and scalability in mind, the Detour API can be easily integrated by airlines and channels. This solution provides the most relevant airline pricing and retailing content directly from the source and integrates the latest safety, airport, traveler experience, and sustainability data with relevant Reassurance UPAs, delivered via API, NDC, or other distribution methods.  

Along with traditional airfare shopping features, the app could be extended to include weather, crime score, and changes to health, airport, and government restrictions. 

PlaneJanes in the hackathon game 
The all-female PlaneJanes won the Regional Award, Americas – one of only six awards given at the Hackathon. Their solution stood out to the judges for its unique concept and execution style that addresses both traveler and industry needs in today’s environment. 

In just 72 hours (with a lot of coffee and very little sleep!) the Janes developed a unique concept, implemented a robust technology roadmap, integrated tons of data into a user-friendly format, topped it off with a beautiful design, and nailed it with a crisp value proposition. The team (Chandra Chukka, Anuradha Ragupathy, Shilpa Sam-Babu, Christine Grubbs, Ramya Boopathiraj, and Anandhi Navaneethakrishnan) shared that their winning formula was their drive, authenticity of their collaboration and team spirit, and the overwhelming support from their ATPCO colleagues. 

In addition to providing a strong team to participate in the hack, ATPCO showed our support for creating a better travel experience for all by also providing our Reassurance UPA API and mentorship to the hack registrants. 

What's next 
The possibilities are endless when you work with industry experts who are poised by the idea to deliver value back to the industry. The data sets, technology roadmap, and many other ingredients that go into these solutions can be integrated by the industry and help encourage a return to safe worldwide travel.

To explore this concept and its possibilities further or to learn more about Reassurance UPA API, contact us at hello@atpco.net.

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Chandra Chukka

About Chandra Chukka

Over the past 14 years I have enjoyed working in different domains and with multiple technologies that have enabled me to understand and solve many critical business problems.

I am currently working on projects like NGS and NDC that continue to solve intriguing airline industry problems, which has led me to believe that software innovation is effective when it is backed by collaboration and quick customer feedback.

I am a proponent of women in technology, an avid health nut, a dog lover, and always ready to participate in hackathons and spartan races.