As it assesses its future in the distribution landscape, ATPCO has acquired Routehappy to rethink its customer experience around merchandizing.
Though the two companies announced a product partnership last year, the purchase further allows ATPCO to leverage Routehappy’s tech and rich content platform alongside its traditional trove of airfare and pricing data.
“Airline merchandising is rapidly evolving, as rich content is more widely adopted across both NDC and traditional distribution models. As an industry, we want travelers to be able to see, and trust, the differences between flight options,” says Jerry Foran, chairman of the board of ATPCO and head of product delivery, revenue management at British Airways.
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“This acquisition is another example of how ATPCO is executing on its promise to fuel the future of airline distribution.”
Under ATPCO, Routehappy’s four rich content types - Scores, Amenities, Universal Product Attributes (UPAs) and Universal Ticket Attributes (UTAs) - will become an industry standard to increase adoption of rich content.
“Our acquisition of Routehappy drives strategic innovation, reduces complexity and delivers network economics to the entire distribution ecosystem. Routehappy has created an offering that solves many of the challenges that airlines encounter in delivering consistent messaging, branding and merchandising through multiple distribution channels,” says ATPCO president and CEO Rolf Purzer, who assumed the role in February of last year.
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“By aligning Routehappy’s complementary rich content with ATPCO’s fare and pricing data, airlines can ensure consistent and differentiated offers for their products in every sales channel.”
More than 430 airlines use ATPCO’s fare and pricing rules content to achieve 87% of worldwide ticket sales. The acquisition of the New York-based Routehappy - founded in 2011 and which counts Expedia, Google and Sabre among customers - is its first in its 53-year history.
Routehappy will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of APTCO, and CEO Robert Albert will continue to lead the company as a strategic business unit. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.