South African low-cost carrier, kulula.com, is planning to increase revenue through a new retailing approach. 

Using Sabre Corporation’s newly-launched AirVision Revenue Optimiser platform, kulula will be able to price its services based on a customer’s willingness to buy different combinations of fares and ancillary services.

As an early adopter of this new revenue management approach, kulula is able to respond faster to changing market conditions in real-time and optimise revenue streams across all its services including ancillary sales, codeshare and partnership arrangements.

“Airlines historically viewed revenue through base fares alone, which is only half the picture,” said Dino Gelmetti, vice president, airline solutions, EMEA, Sabre.

“With ancillary services now accounting for up to 40 percent of total revenue, and travellers expecting additional products and services from their airlines, this legacy approach is no longer effective.

“Airlines need to consider each passenger’s total need, value and spend and provide tailored options that they are likely to purchase.

“Revenue Optimiser has been developed to enable airlines to become smarter retailers by addressing this need, offering their travellers the personalised experience they expect.”

Sabre’s AirVision Revenue Optimiser provides end-to-end control for airlines to better understand customer profiles and respond to their needs and willingness to pay, while efficiently pricing and selling seat inventory and ancillary products. 

This is accomplished by leveraging real-time data from the SabreSonic passenger service systems and other Sabre commercial planning solutions.

By supporting this new retailing approach and allowing airlines to offer products and services tailored with the right content to the right customer and at the right price, Revenue Optimizer can help drive incremental revenue.

kulula.com is the ninth airline to sign an agreement to use this next-generation revenue management solution.