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“Rich content will enable us to communicate the strength of our product offering via informative shopping displays,” says Gulf Air.
ATPCO, the airline pricing, content, and data distributor, is closing out the year with two deals designed to expand its ability to showcase bookings and travel amenities across the web.
The Dulles, Va.-based company’s five-year retailing deal with Gulf Air represents an extension of an existing collaboration. Gulf Air, which is the Kingdom of Bahrain’s national carrier, involves using ATPCO’s Routehappy Rich Content on GulfAir.com to update the way its flight products are displayed online. In addition to Gulf Air’s direct channel website, the deal will also see the airline’s targeted rich content integrated with key regional and global third-party sales channels.
In addition, Wego, the online travel marketplace focused on the Middle East and North Africa, will also begin integrating ATPCO’s Routehappy Rich Content to improve flight shopping displays across its meta-search site in 22 languages including English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic.
The deals follow expanded pacts ATPCO struck this fall with Amadeus and Sabre.
ATPCO completed its global expansion of its year-old Next Generation Storefront (NGS) standard. The launch of NGS at last year’s Elevate reflected the need for its airline owners to ensure that the bookings they offer on Global Distribution Systems like Sabre, Travelport, and as of today, Amadeus among others, will be presented the same way on carriers’ branded websites. In essence, it’s akin to offering a seamless digital storefront in much the same way franchise locations of brick-and-mortar chains make sure that the offerings of a Starbucks in one city doesn’t appear dissimilar to one in a different place.
ATPCO has three core features in its rich content portfolio: Universal Product Attributes (UPAs), Universal Ticket Attribute (UTAs), and Amenities. These features address the main components of any fare that is sold. For example, UPAs bring unique airline products and services to life through photos, graphics, videos, captions and descriptions. UTAs clearly show the fare’s restrictions and benefits, such as boarding priority, how many bags can you check, what's the cancellation policy, seat selection and more.
“Gulf Air has a modern fleet, innovative products, and great on-board service which is delivered with our traditional Arabian hospitality,” a rep for Gulf Air told Kambr Media. “Routehappy will enable us to showcase and bring to life those unique selling points not only on our airline website but also across multiple selling platforms that consume rich content from Routehappy, ensuring at the same time that we maintain a consistent product message across those platforms.
“Rich content will enable us to communicate the strength of our product offering via informative shopping displays,” Gulf Air added. “This will appeal to not only business travelers but also leisure travelers as customers today expect information on which to base their buying decision, regardless of which cabin they are travelling in. Our aim is to satisfy that need for information for all our customers.”
