Service Delivery steps up

IATA ran a multivendor trial this year to test whether Modern Airline Retailing can work across companies. Eight teams from more than 20 providers built live systems across five domains: Product, Offer, Order, Finance, and Delivery. The brief was to move past theory and show real collaboration. Teams were asked to build modular, legacy-free Offer and Order systems that could stand in for monolithic Passenger Service Systems (PSS).

Offers and Orders is the retail model replacing today’s mix of PNRs, tickets and EMDs with a single order record. PSS is the traditional, all-in-one platform many airlines still rely on. The IATA programme tested whether specialist components from multiple vendors can slot together cleanly, so airlines can modernise without replacing everything at once. The work followed the industry’s Reference Business Architecture (RP 1786a). 

The strongest demonstrations were replayed for airlines at the World Passenger Symposium in November. That included Ink Innovation’s collaboration with Datalex and PROS.

Ink featured in two teams.

With Datalex and PROS, it linked Offer Management and Order Management to airport Delivery. Shopping and dynamic pricing flowed through to check-in and ancillary fulfilment. The airline acted as the integrator.

“We clearly demonstrated the ease of integration and modularity of our combined systems in a live environment,” stated Ink-Datalex–PROS team.

With FLYR, Ink paired Offer and Order with Ink’s Service Delivery platform, allowing agents to service the same order record at the airport. Seat moves, bundled ancillaries, and upsell from the delivery UI. State stayed aligned without a PSS dependency.

“IATA PoC projects break down the usual commercial barriers. Multiple companies orchestrating data and processes is a viable strategy,” shared with IATA Ink–FLYR team.

Why it matters

Airlines want to modernise without replacing everything at once. The demos showed Orders driving airport work in real time. Legacy documents appear only when required. Components can be added or swapped without breaking customer journeys. Delivery sits inside the retail engine.

“At the …multivendor Offers & Orders Demo Day in Geneva, more than 20 IT providers were involved in demonstrating eight collaborative solutions across the five domains. This demonstrated that IT providers are eager to collaborate in delivering the right solutions to airlines and driving retail innovation,” commented Sebastien Touraine, Head of Airline Commercial Systems, IATA.

Ink focuses on Service Delivery and airport journey execution. Cloud software that runs airport operations and speaks Order as a first language. It also works with PNRs during transition, allowing airlines to phase out changes on their own terms. That places Ink among the few vendors keeping operations in step with retail decisions in mixed stacks.