Kenya Airways goes live with Sabre’s new technology for group revenue booking

Jul 24, 2017: Kenya’s flag carrier, Kenya Airways, is broadening its revenue streams, having implemented the latest group booking technology from Sabre Corporation. The new approach to group bookings will see the airline use Sabre’s AirVision Group Optimizer platform to streamline group revenue management processes and provide a more holistic view of each booking.

A study indicates that group bookings make up approximately 10 percent of total seats sold across the industry, but today airlines face a challenge in maximising revenue from each seat. For an airline, allocating too many seats to group bookings too far in advance can result in missed opportunities to market higher fares at a later stage. This potential loss in revenue can be significant for airlines. Most airlines also manage group booking requests manually, even though a study found that more than 80 percent of travel managers believe these processes should be automated.

Sabre’s Group Optimizer will now enable Kenya Airways to compare the potential revenue opportunity from a new group reservation request against the projected revenue for individually-sold seats on the same flight, automatically identifying the most profitable option available. This new decision support capability can improve revenue by as much as two percent.

“It is no longer efficient for airlines to look at each booking at face value – whether an individual or a group,” said Dino Gelmetti, vice president EMEA, Airline Solutions at Sabre. “Airlines can increase their revenue using the right technology to provide a holistic view of each traveller – and the same concept applies to groups. Kenya is a popular tourist and business destination and an important market for group travel and we are committed to helping Kenya Airlines to tap into this market by optimising its group revenue. By considering each group’s total need, value and spend, the airline can use the opportunity to fill low-demand flights and create upsell opportunities for tailored products and services.”

In addition, by implementing Group Optimizer the airline will be able to offer self-service capabilities to its agencies and travel buyers, empowering them to initiate, monitor and track their group requests online, and provide support for the use of multiple payment options. Overall, by automating this manual-intensive process, Group Optimizer will improve productivity, and reduce booking request response times.

“With its quick turnaround time, our new group booking tool is able to accomplish group travel reservations in minutes rather than days,” said Sebastian Mikosz, Group Managing Director and CEO, Kenya Airways. “With this new tool, we therefore aim to improve sales effectiveness for our customers as well as increase customer satisfaction by providing tailored offers, while also maximising the revenue contribution from group business.”

Sabre’s AirVision Group Optimizer is delivered via a partnership with Infiniti Software Services.

Kenya Airways joins several other forward-thinking carriers in signing an agreement to use this next generation group revenue management solution.