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SkyEurope Airlines (NE) becomes the first New Skies hosted Low Cost Carrier offering IATA compliant e-ticketing in 100 countries around the globe on its more than 70 routes. The low-cost, low-fare airline in Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia achieved seamless GDS access via Hahn Air’s e-alliance not only for reservations but now also for e-ticketing, including the option for Interline E-Ticketing (IET).
From its headquarters in Bratislava, and its bases in Vienna and Prague, SkyEurope serves 40 destinations in 18 European countries with 14 brand new Boeing 737-700 Next Generation aircraft.
After almost 18 months of co-operation with its e-ticket provider Hahn Air, SkyEurope can be sold by over 60.000 IATA travel agencies following their normal e-ticket routines with the HR/169 document.
"Almost two thirds of our global BSP sales continue to be cash transactions, i.e. non credit card driven revenue", says Hans Nolte, Hahn Air CEO. "GDS participation has become quite usual for LCCs over the last two years. However, most of the world‘s leading Low Cost airlines missed out the real strength of Amadeus & Co. and they were not satisfied with the results of their GDS participation. Lacking the technical link between the LCCs‘ often used inventory solutions by NAVITAIRE and the leading Electronic Ticket Servers, LCCs were to use so-called "ticketless" sales processes in the GDS with Credit Cards as the only accepted form of payment. They could not opt for full scale, IATA compliant BSP e-ticketing. With the close of this gap, LCCs will get access to the last stronghold of Legacy Carriers: the global network of IATA BSPs with its thousands of Corporate Travel Agents. At the same time, IET will become an option not only in crossover scenarios LCC/Legacy but also for co-operations between two or more LCCs. SkyEurope was visionary enough to realise the potential of additional revenue in the tens of millions and patiently teamed up with us in the development of a very sophisticated solution."
Steven Greenway, Chief Commercial Officer of SkyEurope Airlines says: "The launch of Hahn Air’s e-alliance solution in partnership with SkyEurope greatly increases our sales and distribution capability and market penetration. For the first time tour operators and travel agencies, both corporate and leisure, have access to real time pricing and inventory for SkyEurope flights along with the benefits of IATA compliant BSP e-ticketing. Importantly, the whole solution has been completely outsourced to Hahn Air thus not complicating SkyEurope’s low cost model approach. We are now looking forward to launching with other major GDSs in the coming months along with the deployment of negotiated fares via the solution for key partners."
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
