Finnair, a major European airline carrying over 8 million passengers a year and with growth markets in Asia, has adopted the Amadeus Ancillary Services solution to distribute its ancillary programme in northern Europe. The service enables passengers to book their preferred seat in Scandinavia, Finland and Benelux, as well as extra baggage in Finland, both through Amadeus travel agencies and via Finnair’s direct channels, including the carrier’s website.

The Amadeus ancillary solution is also integrated across Finnair’s airport and city ticket offices so that travellers can be consistently served across these channels.

Amadeus Airline Ancillary Services is an end-to-end solution which enables users to price, book and pay services across all channels in full compliance with industry standards set by IATA.

“By adopting the Amadeus solution, we can capture more bookings through ancillary service differentiation”, says Petteri Skaffair, Head of Customer Experience & Sales Applications at Finnair. “It increases the visibility of optional services at the optimal purchase time and its consistent level of quality in the delivery across all channels results in greater customer satisfaction and loyalty”.

Finnair will use the Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) as the fulfilment solution to sell excess baggage and seats in Finland. EMD is the IATA standard solution for the fulfilment of ancillary services and it brings the same benefits as e-ticketing since it eliminates the use of paper and eases processes.

Finnair has been Amadeus’ launch partner –together with Egyptair- of the world’s first interline Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) link. The application of EMD to interline partnerships means that participating airlines can now facilitate payment for and delivery of ancillary services across their partnerships and alliances.

Amadeus estimates that up to 20% of air bookings made through its system are the result of interline partnerships, representing a huge opportunity for airlines to increase revenues through the sale of ancillary services via their partner carriers.

“Recent research by Ideaworks shows that ancillary services were worth over $32.5 billion to airlines in 2011 and that ancillary revenue is helping to lift airline industry earnings”, says David Doctor, Director Distribution Marketing at Amadeus. “We are delighted to be able to help Finnair tap into a sector of services which is critical to airline profitability”.