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Leading the way into a new dimension of distribution

It’s clear that the primary goal of an airline is to sell as many tickets as possible at the highest price while keeping distribution costs as low down. Therefore, it is important for airlines to in a position to control their distribution channels and costs. There are currently various ways of doing this. An airline can use different distribution channels (including GDSs), which it monitors itself in order to manage distribution costs. Or the airline can use its existing distribution channel instead of the GDS systems, but because it has alternatives, it can press for lower fees in its contractual negotiations with the GDSs.

If an airline uses several distribution channels at the same time, it requires a powerful distribution channel management system in order to control its offers and distribution costs for each channel. Lufthansa Systems’ Distribution Channel Manager allows airlines to optimize their distribution channel management, which leads to lower distribution costs and the ability to market flights flexibly for each distribution channel. This way airlines can customize their offers to each target group and offer them using different distribution channels.

So how does the Distribution Channel Manager work? It follows rules governing which offers are sent to which distribution channel. These rules are flexible and can be defined individually by each airline. Airlines can define any number of rules for each channel or point of sale. The rule parameters determine which rules are applied to which booking inquiries. Besides fares and surcharges, these rules can cover service fees, stop-over options, code-share flight availability, special services such as seat reservations, or upsell mechanisms.