Altitude22: Singapore Airlines in final stages of testing dynamic pricing with agents

Altitude22: Singapore Airlines in final stages of testing dynamic pricing with agents

Migration to New Distribution Capability has hit 15%, the airline's Bryan Koh tells aviation executives at Amadeus's conference held in Dubai this week

Singapore Airlines is in the final stages of testing dynamic pricing with agent partners as part of its NDC migration that will open a wider array of products and services to the indirect channel.

Bryan Koh, divisional vice president ecommerce and distribution, told this week’s Amadeus Altitude22 airline executive summit services will be available previously only offered on its website.

One example is ‘Book the Cook’ which offers premium business and first class customers a wider array of more than 100 meal choices compared to the usual four.

“NDC is connected to our merchandising engine so we can deploy a range of merchandising techniques not possible by EDIFACT technology,” said Koh.

“We can dynamically adjust pricing and offer discounts depending on who is shopping. Features previously only available on our website are now available on NDC.

“We are in the final stages of testing dynamic pricing in the indirect channel.”

Koh said migrating agency partners to NDC was challenging to begin with due to the amount of testing that was required and Singapore’s salesforce had to engage with the trade.

But he said having educated the airline’s team about how to nudge agents to adopt NDC, it now takes about seven days to make the content available to a trade partner.

Koh urged agents to “embrace the change”. Having been working with Amadeus on NDC for a year-and-a-half, the carrier has achieved 15% adoption globally.

“NDC can sometimes be very daunting, especially for front line agents that are concerned about how to make bookings accurately and efficiently,” said Koh.

Concerns remain about moving away from cryptic to a graphic interfaces, conceded Koh, and some services agents cannot do in NDC, but he said the target was for much higher adoption than 15%.

“I’m glad that Amadeus has revealed the future. We cannot work with you if you not have a shared vision of the future.

“We are aligned with the vision and the strategy. At the working level, we have also adapted the way we work together. We’ve moved some development to bespoke to develop our own NDC pipe.

“We recognise this is a long term partnership, it’s like a marriage…you need to work together, need to be committed, need to be accountable to each other.

“There will be a lot of obstacles and speed bumps along the way but we can do it together.

“We hope, we demand and expect, Amadeus to continue to channel investment in to developing NDC to meet our aspirations and many airlines in the room for the broader good of the industry.”