The Language of Differentiation: How Datalex’s recent IATA ARMi certifications for Dynamic Pricing are accelerating the path to dynamic airline offers

Big news on the future of dynamic retailing..

In October 2022, Datalex was officially certified by IATA on three major messages in the AI-powered pricing and dynamic pricing sphere within the Airline Retailing Maturity Index (ARMi).  

Currently, Datalex is one of only two technology vendors to be certified on the IATA ARMi in relation to the three Dynamic Pricing capabilities. The certifications further advance Datalex’s innovative dynamic offer and pricing shopping capabilities for airlines and their customers across all channels with the following messages:   

• Continuous Pricing – AI-powered pricing that generates infinite price points for more customer-centric pricing, spearheaded by our innovative product for AI-powered pricing, Datalex Pricing AI.  

• Dynamic Price Determination - Real-time calculated prices based on the customer’s shopping context
     
  
• Pre-defined Price points with Dynamic Price Adjustments – Use of discounts and mark-ups to create more price points, even when filing fares with ATPCO.   

Of these certifications, the two that really bring key differentiators to the airline are dynamic price determination and continuous pricing. As one of the first to achieve these latest certifications demonstrates Datalex’s longer-term retailing vision to dynamically offer and price consistently and intelligently across all channels, including NDC, and it further highlights the value that NDC represents for airlines. 

But what does this mean more broadly as part of the overarching industry goal towards dynamic offers and best practice e-commerce retailing? The ability to intelligently offer the right products and corresponding prices across channels represents a shift in customer communication – airlines can truly differentiate in this ‘new language’ by surfacing relevant and compelling offers and prices that ultimately are more appealing to their customers.

What does this mean for airlines?

Let’s work backwards – now that we know the new messages, what is this ‘new language’? At Datalex we call this the “language of differentiation,” in other words the way in which airlines can communicate their offering through rich content is now fundamentally changed, for the better. To date airlines have not had the technical means to showcase their offers and bundles across channels in a differentiated way that is more compelling and relevant for customers and therefore will convert better. Now they can.  

“Differentiation will become the new language for communicating with travellers” 

It is this ability to differentiate and use the ‘language of differentiation’ in communicating offers and prices that will reshape how airlines communicate with customers – directly through customer centric pricing and offers and indirectly as agents are empowered to choose the offer with the richest content and most optimal price. As these messages are available through NDC, the same level of differentiation is now possible at the agency level. Moreover, this provides airlines with more control, not only of offers but now pricing also – bringing more dynamism to differentiated offers with competitive and optimal pricing.

Airlines benefit in the following ways:  

1. True differentiation, no matter the channel - Create more price points for the customer so they can effectively pick their preferred price, and at the same time create more revenue opportunities for airlines. There is an unparalleled opportunity to shine at an agency level with price and offer differentiation that stands out from the crowd, whatever the channel.  
   
2. Modularity is the future – To be truly connected in the future with one order, airlines need standalone technology that connects intelligently to others. This certification demonstrates this future state in action - by providing the same consistent content across channels with no legacy constraints.
     
   
3. Efficiency and no overheads – Data used to train AI models for AI-powered pricing using existing knowledge and data from the airline in house. This means a more efficient and proprietary way of delivering the right offer and price based on existing data.
    
4. Integration of just 12 weeks – With 12 weeks ‘integration time’ for Pricing AI (Datalex’s product to drive AI-powered pricing) this is less of an integration period and more of a ‘learning and training period’ where the airlines’ proprietary data is fed to AI models which learns to make decisions in the language of that airline, achieving true differentiation at speed and scale.  

What does this mean for your customers?  

It’s not just the airline that benefits from these developments, the customer has never been more at the centre of technology than before.  

1. Offer differentiation – Ability to differentiate at an agency level means an alignment in differentiated offers with competitive and optimal pricing that speaks to the customer.  
   
2. Customer centricity - The offer is good for the customer and the airline as it takes everything into account at any given moment, so if two customers have the same parameters at the same moment they will get the same price - it is the most optimal price at a given point in time. In that sense it is customer-centric, not customer specific.  

A language that airlines and customers both speak  

This development is another significant step towards differentiating and ensuring consistency of offers across all channels (including NDC). Datalex’s Chief Product Officer Conor O’Sullivan said that Datalex has the ‘ability to deliver rich retailing capabilities for airlines across both the direct channel and NDC’ and this is exemplified in the recent certifications. 

We have the messages ready; airlines simply need to learn to use this ‘new language of differentiation’ to use them effectively to present the most relevant offers and optimal price across all channels, for higher conversion and higher revenues.