Routehappy founder Robert Albert to step down, shift to advisory role at ATPCO

Nearly 10 years since launching Routehappy, founder Robert Albert is stepping down from his role as executive vice president of retailing for ATPCO, the company that bought Routehappy in 2018, to pursue interests that include supporting social justice causes.

As of tomorrow, Albert will transition to the role of senior advisor to ATPCO and out of his day-to-day leadership role for the company that was a pioneer in developing “rich content” products for airline retailing and runner-up as "Most Innovative Emerging Company" at the Phocuswright Conference in 2013.

It’s a move Albert says he has been contemplating since the acquisition in February 2018.

“I decided I would work very hard to integrate and scale but then there will be this moment at the 10-year mark, I decided, that it will be time for me to take a break and pursue these other interests and passions while keeping my foot in the door,” he says.

“Really consciously for the last year and a quarter I’ve been in this working-myself-out-of-a-job kind of role. And it feels great because it is so satisfying to have created something that I genuinely believe will go on forever, that it is useful to the whole industry.”

Asked to reflect on what he is most proud of in this first decade of Routehappy, Albert quickly offers two things: the “smart, passionate team of inventors” that he worked with to build a new way to create and sell flight products and that has now grown to include hundreds of others at airlines, sales channels and distribution systems who also “know and understand and can explain and evangelize and innovate” about flight retailing.

And second, the fact that what began as his “slightly crazy idea” has now become a solution for the common good of the airline industry.

“We had to say this is what we’re trying to do, but it only works if everyone jumps in and agrees to do it,” he says.

“And enough people, little by little, started to jump in and believe the vision and the story. It’s an odd thing for a startup to say we’ve got to do something on behalf of the entire industry ... and I’m incredibly proud of that.”

In April, Albert led the launch of ATPCO’s newest rich content product known as Reassurance UPAs, which enable airlines and sales channels to describe and show measures airlines are taking to protect travelers due to COVID-19.

So what’s next for Albert? At the top of his list are spending more time in nature and becoming actively involved in social justice issues.

“I'm kind of a change agent type of person. I’m okay with change. I believe change is necessary and important. A lot of things that are unfair about the world and the country bug me a lot,” he says.

“I’m now at the point where I care so passionately about politics and social justice issues that I’m planning on getting involved in lots of different ones. ... We have to all step up and speak up.”

Will that mean a run for office is in his future?

“No way!” Albert says.

“It’s more like Routehappy - I want to be kind of the behind-the-scenes guy who can help things happen but not have to be the politician.”