The most effective ways to achieve increased revenue for airlines

Facilitating increased revenue for all our customers is what we do here at Calrom: after all, our success is your success.

In my role as Global Partnerships Manager, I work closely with our airline partners to grow their groups revenue via the successful implementation, support and development of Groups Next Gen, our airline group booking software. The aim isn’t just simply to increase revenue in the short and medium term, but to position airlines for future success which makes up a huge part of what we do.

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How have we achieved increased revenue for our partners to date?

Every Calrom partner realises revenue increases via Groups Next Gen’s market-leading benefits.

Greater market visibility

By providing their customers with a 24-hour shop & book platform, customers are able to access the airline’s group travel product in the same way a traditional consumer would book a non-group product – for example, traditional leisure travel.

This real-time booking process facilitates increased visibility of the airline’s groups product in the market.

More in-depth insights

We also find that with increased visibility, comes increased market intelligence. Groups Next Gen offers a comprehensive suite of reporting tools which help airlines shape and gather very powerful data-driven insights.

It’s vital to create strategies for future growth for an informed position and Calrom’s airline partners all have a greater understanding of what their customers are doing in the groups space.

That’s just the start! We can confidently say that this alone increases revenue, however, there’s so much more to group travel management and we’re proud to say, with our decades of expertise in the market, we’ve covered the whole experience.

Taking on complexities

The initial booking is only the beginning of what is typically a long and complicated journey for a group travel booking.

The complexity of managing the group booking journey can be both daunting and very resource-heavy for airlines. From the variety of changes to the application of terms and conditions, the group booking is a unique thing within the travel industry, and understandably the question “is it worth the effort?” will almost certainly have been asked from time to time.

Where some see complexity, we at Calrom see opportunities. The group booking life cycle has many areas where increased revenue should be realised and we’re intent on helping our airline partners convert those opportunities into realities.

How else can you convert groups opportunities into increased revenue?

We’ve found that every benefit of Groups Next Gen has one transformative effect: the ability for airlines to deliver improved customer satisfaction which leads to increased loyalty and repeat bookings.

Our airline partners using our group booking software all see the rate of repeat business increase – and continue to grow over time too!

The most significant areas of opportunity for an airline are:

Outsource to automation

Through an automated group booking management system, it’s possible that airline customers can quote, book, add ancillaries, make changes and issue tickets without ever contacting the airline through traditional channels.

When changes are made to a group booking – and we find that there are always changes! – the ability to upgrade all (or some) of the group to premium cabins in the same way as the initial quote and book experience is essential for both airline efficiency and the customer experience. This enables your teams to spend time on high-value conversions, rather than day-to-day booking management.

Similarly, the ability to increase group size across all cabins is really important, particularly when coupled with the increased revenue from other changes. After all – the more passengers in the group, the higher the revenue.

My colleague Simon Wilson talks more about how airlines can maximise group booking via automation in a previous article.

Automatic application of fees

We understand what a struggle it is for airlines to manage resource-heavy facilitation items – for example, name change fees, change fees, cancellation fees and more.

Applying these fees automatically – as Groups Next Gen does – in line with automated terms and conditions (T&Cs) eases the burden on your teams. Once the airline has configured its T&Cs into Groups Next Gen, they are automatically applied in instances where changes lead to fees and cancellations lead to penalties.

We call this compliance revenue, and to date, all of Calrom’s partners have seen large increases in this area. One customer even realised $1m in compliance revenue during the first year of one point of sale going live.

This is before even touching on ancillary sales – an area we think is well overdue some love and attention!

That’s all very well, but how do airlines ensure continual growth and increased revenue with their groups product?

In the travel industry, change is a constant so we must keep pioneering new approaches to help our customers reach new markets and keep advancing technologically too.

To do this, we’ve built a culture with our airline customers at the centre of all we do. It all starts with our people: we’re a very experienced, talented team who specialise in group travel.

Continuous improvement is a fundamental cornerstone of Calrom’s ethos so we’ve aligned our practices and services with the needs of our customers, allowing us to keep delivering results now and into the future.

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Let’s chat about your airline needs

Get in touch via our contact form to see what Groups Next Gen can do for you and how we can help you increase your revenue.

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