How can the world’s airlines and channels find help from ATPCO to cope with today’s situation? Here are some insights from ATPCO’s Head of Latin America Marcelo Franceschini Freire.
Welcome to the last episode of the five-part series, where you will hear from our regional industry experts on handling the effects of the current market conditions.
In this interview you will learn about four tools you can use now to save one or two hours a day as you manage your pricing data and implement your pricing strategies faster. Airlines update as many as 10 million fares with ATPCO a day, and these tools are built to make that process more efficient.
- Analyze market changes for informed pricing decisions (MarketView at 1:33)
- Improve time to market (Express Contracts at 2:36)
- Improve time to market and efficiency (Simplified Rules at 2:50)
- Make data management more efficient (Mass Update feature at 3:06)
Transcript
Welcome to the fifth episode of the expert's vlog series, where we'll highlight some of the tools and functionalities that can be extremely helpful for airlines right now.
With me today is Marcelo Freire, Head of Latin America region at ATPCO. Marcelo has over 25 years in the travel industry and was part of the team who started operations of a major GDS in Brazil, acting in various roles from automation instructor to country sales manager.
Welcome, Marcelo. Or should I say, “¡Bienvenidos!”
Hello, Andrea. Y buenas tardes a todos.
We'll jump right into it. Knowing that we can see up to 10 million fare changes flow through ATPCO systems daily, I can only imagine how heavily airlines rely on the tools that help them to make those changes happen. Are there any specific tools that would be most helpful or significant right now for airlines to manage that pricing data?
Well, Andrea, managing pricing changes in an efficient way is as important as ever. We have been working with airlines to help address their top concerns in this area, improving time to market, creating and managing their pricing data, and of course saving costs. I would like to highlight a few tools that can be extremely helpful right now to address those concerns, especially for airlines looking for efficiencies in these coming months.
For airlines who want to see how their fares compared to public fares in their markets they operate, I can suggest the use of MarketView. We also just added a new search type that will allow them to view and compare historical public fares with their own historical fares, and all the changes made to those fares for the past 13 months. This search type is Historical Fares in MarketView and we are offering this free of charge until August 2020.
Airlines can also use the change monitoring search in MarketView and look into changes that are happening in competitive markets they are targeting, and even set up email alerts for when those changes happen. Some airlines told us they are saving one to two hours a day analyzing pricing changes using this feature.
And what other tools are there right now that could improve time to market?
Well, to improve time to market, I would like to highlight two products Express Contracts and Simplified Rules. Express Contracts can turn negotiated contracts into bookable fares in one day. Simplified Rules allows airlines to make mass updates to their rules based on their contracts in one place.
And also efficiency in FareManager. Many airlines found the Mass Updates feature in FareManager extremely helpful right now as it lets them apply changes to a large group of fares and rules more efficiently.
Airlines can always contact our Customer Service team to help with mass updates or any special input projects.
Fantastic. And as we've mentioned in previous episodes, ATPCO has reprioritized its development plan to better assist the travel industry during this time. What are the new developments and enhancements that airline pricing analysts can benefit from?
Improving workflow for pricing teams and providing relevant contextual data for pricing decisions is very important in our development of new tools and features. ATPCO is currently working on solutions to support pricing safeguards for small scale and one-off fare changes. We look forward to providing more information on these new developments soon.
That's fantastic. And, Marcelo, how would you advise the pricing teams going through organizational changes and maybe looking for a fresh start?
Well, if you need a refresher or are looking to expand your skills on our tools, you may find ATPCO's virtual sessions very helpful. These free online sessions are conducted by one of our experienced ATPCO experts and cover topics like tips and tricks on how to be more efficient. We also have refresher sessions on Rules, Routings, Fares, and Footnotes. The one- to two-hour sessions include instructions, system demonstrations, and time for Q&A. It is a great opportunity to get some dedicated time with our experts and the courses are free for all ATPCO customers.
Thank you so much, Marcelo. And to everyone watching, we'd love to stay connected. Reach out to us with any questions and visit ATPCO's Customer Center for those refresher trainings and more learning resources. And as always, stay safe.
Gracias, Andrea, and stay well.
