Airline Distribution Strategies and e-Commerce

5-day (40 hours) classroom course

The Airline industry is undertaking the transition process towards more customer-centricity and the implementation of modern retailing best practices. The aim of this transition is to improve “repeat purchase” by addressing most customer travel needs, safeguard the existing customer reach via third parties, generate more revenues and optimize customer acquisition and indirect distribution costs. In this 5-day IATA Airline Distribution Strategies and e-Commerce course, you will learn about todays and future airline distribution technologies, the revenue potential of different distribution channels and associated costs (digital channels, GDS, NDC, partnerships).

Upon completion of the course, you will have the toolset and the skillset to distinguish between various airline customer profiles and map out the most common customer journeys and most effective sales touchpoints. The course also outlines modern e-commerce sales and profit maximization capabilities and builds your capacity on how industry best practices can be mapped, project managed and rolled out at your airline in line with your business model. The learning methodology is based on the concept of “experiential learning” and consists of highly engaging and interactive real life case studies.

Course Code: ALC022VEEN02

Course format

• This classroom course provides 5 days (40 hours) of instruction delivered by an official IATA Instructor.
• Take this course at an IATA Training Center, Regional Training Partner, or on-demand as in-house training.
• Student performance will be based on an assessment.

Prerequisites

• Recommended level is Intermediate and Advanced.
• The recommended level of language proficiency is ICAO Operational Level 4 for courses in English or the equivalent level for other languages.

How to register

• When you click the Register button, you will be directed to log in to your Training Account.
• Register early and save up to 25% at our Training Centers! Please read the Terms and Conditions for the early bird discount.

In-house training

To arrange in-house training for your company, please complete the in-house training request form or contact the Training Specialist in your region.

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

• Learn about the past, modern and future airline distribution technologies and costs (digital channels, GDS, NDC, partnerships)
• Discuss key strategic considerations for airlines from customer reach, revenue independence and cost of customer acquisition
• Distinguish between various airline customer profiles and map out most common customer journeys and sales touchpoints
• Map out the short- and long-term pros and cons of shifting from legacy distribution systems to modern day retailing tools and methodologies
• List modern e-commerce sales maximization capabilities and how to apply them in practice

The key topics that are covered during this course include:

• Airline distribution technologies and channels
• Role of GDS, new industry entrants and NDC
• Strategic aspects: customer reach, revenue independence and customer acquisition cost
• Industry shift towards customer centricity
• Customer journey and sales touchpoints
• The use and value added of historical data
• Changing customer profiles and expectations
• E-commerce tools and airline best practices
• Distribution channel and payment mix management strategy
• SEO, CRO, AB Testing and other methods
• Multi-channel targeting

Activities

• Cases studies
• Presentations
• Interactive group exercises

This course is recommended for:

• Airline or Airport commercial decision makers
• Sales channels (web and app) managers
• Data scientists, BI and IT managers
• Biz development and product managers
• Pricing and Revenue Management professionals
• Marketing and e-commerce professionals

An IATA Certificate of Completion is awarded to participants obtaining a grade of 70% or higher on all exercises and exams. A special distinction is awarded to participants obtaining a grade of 90% or higher.