Mobiata and Farelogix have partnered to let airlines market and sell products and services to on-the-go consumers to address buying behavior and demand.

With the service, airlines can extend their merchandising capabilities, offering consumers priority boarding offers if they have carry-on luggage to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android devices, with Research In Motion’s BlackBerry coming soon. The partnership between Farelogix and Mobiata lets the airlines make offers based on the consumer’s location.

“[The strategy is] to make airline merchandising available to on-the-go travelers, drive revenue from ancillary products and services and improve airline customer relationship management,” said Jack Loop, vice president of business development at Mobiata, Ann Arbor, MI.

“The ability to connect with passengers while they are traveling is a natural fit for mobile apps,” he said.

Mobiata is a mobile service provider for travel brands. The company’s self-published applications provide itinerary management and aim to enhance the traveler experience.

Economical solution
By partnering with Farelogix, a provider of distribution technology and services for the travel industry, Mobiata wanted to extend its services to include timely merchandising notifications.

Mr. Loop said Mobiata’s mobile platform is well suited for travel brands faced with the challenge of keeping up with the rapid pace of innovation in mobile.

The partnership was formed in an effort to provide an economical service to cash strapped airlines.

“The travel industry has been financially challenged in recent years and needs to innovate to find additional revenue streams,” Mr. Loop said. “There is a tremendous opportunity for airlines to merchandise offers beyond the recent charging for bags and in-flight meals.

“Efficiently locating, identifying and offering a product, then completing a transaction during a travel experience, are challenges uniquely solved by the Mobiata mobile travel platform,” he said.
 
Mobiata integrated FMS2, Farelogix’s merchandising services that manage how airline offerings are branded and sold, into its FlightTrack and TripDeck travel applications.

With the combined service, airlines can activate the merchandising features in Mobiata’s applications to provide travelers with timely offers based on passenger location or at other points during the purchase and itinerary-review processes.

Building a relationship
According to Mobiata, ancillary services previously have been limited to check-in kiosks or airline Web sites.

Through the partnership, airlines can offer individual travelers a variety of add-on services such as seat upgrades, priority boarding, a meal, in-flight entertainment, Internet access and airline lounge access at intervals after a flight has been booked, but before travel takes place.

These services can be specially priced for the airlines’ most-valued frequent flyers, while occasional travelers can pay a small premium to be treated like a frequent flyer.

Mr. Loop said airlines that use mobile establish a relationship to customers in ways not previously possible.

“Airlines can now offer products and services beyond tickets to help reestablish some of the joy of traveling that, as an industry, has been collectively lost over the past decade,” he said.

“Most importantly, customers will be able to receive new offers and services that they want and airlines will have a way to capitalize on new revenue streams from additional service delivery.”