Amadeus and Volantio announce a new partnership to help airlines optimize capacity and increase revenues

No one likes to show up at the airport only to be turned away because of overbooking. A new agreement between Amadeus and Volantio hopes to make that experience one for the history books.

Amadeus announces two deals with Volantio today. The travel tech startup will receive funding from Amadeus’ startup investment program Amadeus Ventures. At the same time, the startup has signed a new partnership with Amadeus which will enable airlines to easily integrate Volantio’s innovative solution with Amadeus Altéa technology.

Volantio is a natural fit for Amadeus. The tech start-up has built an industry leading platform, Yana, that helps airlines better optimize both capacity and revenue, improving customer satisfaction and bottom line results. Yana proactively identifies flexible passengers on full flights and provides them with an incentive (such as frequent flyer miles, travel vouchers, or upgrades) to voluntarily move to lower demand flights. The platform automatically rebooks passengers who accept, and fulfills the selected incentive. Passengers are notified on their mobile devices, even days in advance of departure, to avoid last-minute hassles. The entire process is guided by machine learning in order to maximize profitability for airlines and improve the experience for travelers.

Yana improves both the management of oversold flights, and helps airlines improve overall revenue performance post booking. Volantio’s platform will complement Amadeus’ technology, giving airlines more options to boost revenue throughout the entire flight life cycle from the time the booking window opens until the flight departs.

This announcement comes after Volantio won the Amadeus Accenture Alliance Air Pitch at the Skift Global Forum in September 2018 and the opportunity to spend four days in a development sprint  in the Alliance’s Innovation Center in Dublin. Most recently, the startup turned heads again at Amadeus’ T3CH event in March, when it won the top startup pitch.

“We are honored and humbled to receive funding and to enter a commercial partnership agreement with Amadeus, a company that has been at the global forefront of travel technology innovation. Our company’s mission is to drive value for the travel industry while also making travelers better off. These agreements will significantly accelerate Volantio’s growth and ability to realize this mission, enabling more Altéa partners to go live with our platform faster. We’re so excited to get started,” says Azim Barodawala, CEO, Volantio.

“We’re always looking for ways to help our airline partners succeed by providing better travel experiences to passengers, and strongly believe in the transformational potential of Volantio’s technology. We’re confident this latest Amadeus Ventures investment will yield great rewards for all parties involved” says Suzanna Chiu, Head of Amadeus Ventures.

“Partnerships are one of the backbones of our strategy to accelerate growth and innovation for airlines. We plan on facilitating the integration between Amadeus Altéa and Volantio’s technology so that airlines can deliver more flexible offers to their travellers whilst maximizing revenues,” says Altaf Rizvi, Director of Partnerships & Acquisitons, Airlines, Amadeus.

Volantio already works with seven airlines including Qantas, Iberia, Alaska Airlines, Volaris, IndiGo and others. So far, partner airlines have seen an average of 3 to 5 times returns on their investment, and customer feedback has been very strong.

Volantio is joining the Amadeus Ventures  portfolio, which focuses on companies that enhance the travel experience for business and leisure travelers and includes some well-known companies such as FLYR, BookingPal and Betterez.