Farelogix is highly supportive of management and settlement standards being developed around the merchandising process. We have been the leaders in developing the first ARC certified EMD (both EMD-A and EMD-S), which is in full accordance to the IATA reporting standard. Farelogix merchandising solutions also fully support ATPCO fare filings if airlines opt to use ATP instead of alternative merchandising solutions in the market.
However,
Farelogix is concerned about the recent announcement to extend the "standards movement" to the actual airline product definition and sales process.
Some airlines have said they support use of ARC's
electronic miscellaneous document as a means to better equip themselves to sell and account for ancillary revenue items, while others haven't publicly said a thing about it. AirTran is one exception. It's not interested.
Last week, I introduced a blog series on merchandising. The
first installment focused on the fact that there is a wide range of opinions and emotions across the travel industry regarding this new phenomenon called merchandising. I also pointed out that there is a fair amount of misinformation and misunderstanding on the topic, and this often inhibits effective discussion and debate. So, in the hopes of leading to more fruitful and informed discussions for all of us, this second installment is a short primer on merchandising lingo. The intent here is to give us all a baseline understanding about this powerful movement that is unfolding in our industry.
Developing standards and solutions to handle ancillary revenue items now in vogue at most airlines has been and will continue to be a challenging task that requires coordination between various industry constituents. The solution favored by ARC--the
electronic miscellaneous document--has its good, bad and ugly sides.
