Sabre Airline Solutions has signed deals worth $2.5 million with Alitalia, which will use the tech provider’s revenue integrity products and consulting team, to stem millions of dollars of revenue leakage. It has also extended and upgraded its use of the Sabre AirMax revenue management system.

Alitalia will use two components of the SabreSonic Passenger Solutions suite to cut down on revenue leakage. The Sabre SmartFlow tool kit will enable the airline quickly to create robotic processes that interface with global distribution systems (GDSs), airline host systems, databases, e-mail servers and Web services. Examples of usage include revenue integrity processing, waitlist management, disruption management notification and down-line segment cancellation.

The second component, Sabre GDS Analysis, gives Alitalia the ability to evaluate fares and availability data on each GDS to ensure these reflect accurately the actual fares in its reservation system. This will eliminate unnecessary credit memos and help address traveler and travel agency dissatisfaction caused by inaccurate pricing.

Sabre GDS Analysis will also allow Alitalia to monitor how it is ranked against other airlines on different GDS displays and harvest route-based market intelligence about competitor fares and availability. The product will provide the information Alitalia needs to improve its GDS display ranking, such as schedule or fare changes.

Consultants from Sabre Airline Solutions will work closely with Alitalia staff for the first few months of operation, providing support, advice and guidance.

“Combined with the hands-on consulting expertise that Sabre Airline Solutions was able to offer, we’re confident that these products will help stem revenue leakage,” said Gianni Matassa, Alitalia’s director of revenue management and distribution. “This is a classic example of the way the wider Sabre business is adding value to its relationship with us—over and above the traditional distribution function.”

Matassa said Sabre AirMax Revenue Manager would deliver increased productivity, better forecasts and better overall revenue management.

Murray Smyth, Sabre Airline Solutions’ senior vice-president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the products to stem revenue leakage had already achieved proven results for both British Airways and Air Canada.

“The clincher for Alitalia, however, was when we were able to run real data from the airline through the tools, and show them the results,” he said.

Smyth said Sabre Airline Solutions was in talks with Alitalia about the use of other products that would help the airline market and schedule its inventory for maximum profit, sell its products, serve its customers and operate more efficiently from planning to execution on a day-to-day basis.
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