In the news: Abacus and Spring Airlines partner, Singapore to be regional analytics hub, Marriott’s metasearch bookings via DerbySoft, lowcostholidays’ new Australian website

It’s Abacus for Spring Airlines as its distribution partner

Shanghai-based Spring Airlines has chosen Abacus as its exclusive distribution partner to promote its new international routes and fares.

The three-year agreement gives China’s largest low cost carrier an unparalleled retail distribution grid outside the mainland, with Abacus travel agents at over 20,000 locations booking seats on its competitively priced flights.

The carrier, which is expanding its fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft, is looking to gain share on routes into Asian destinations that include Hong Kong, Macau, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Jeju, Bangkok and Phuket.

“Spring Airlines has been successful in creating opportunities for travellers to explore China, and we are now responding to demand for more options overseas,” said the airline’s chairman, Wang Zhenghua. “We started the airline with business from sister Spring Travel, so appreciate how important the trade channel is in building the brand. We look forward to working with Abacus agents and to offering them the best of our fares.”

Robert Bailey, Abacus’ president and chief executive officer, added that its landmark partnership with Spring Airlines is ideally timed for the next stage of growth in low cost intra-regional travel.

The agreement also broadens Abacus’ access to the mainland as the company recently gained approval from the Civil Aviation Authority of China to operate there as a foreign Global Distribution System.

“We are committed to developing international business for the Chinese travel community, making this latest signing with Spring Airlines all the more significant,” said Bailey.

Founded in 2005 by Spring Travel, the Chinese carrier has emerged as the dominant player in China’s domestic travel market. It has a consistent load factor of 94+%, and has been profitable since its launch.

* Photo courtesy of Spring Airlines official Facebook page

Moves by Singapore’s IDA to make country a regional analytics hub

The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore is to continue expanding the country’s capabilities in data and analytics in its effort to make it a regional analytics hub, revealed its deputy chairman, Steve Leonard, at the inaugural EmTech Singapore 2014 (January 20-21), a conference organised by MIT Technology Review.

“Unlike some other resources, data does not deplete as you use it. Data becomes more valuable the more you share it and use it. The knowledge created through intelligent analysis of data enables us to deal with priority issues such as healthcare. Data and analytics underpin our development towards being an increasingly smart nation,” said Leonard.

Studies have projected that data and analytics could generate an additional S$10 billion to S$17 billion of value per year for Singapore, which is already benefitting from such opportunities.

IDA has already undertaken initiatives to develop data capabilities, including releasing data sets to encourage the public, the industry and other organisations to capitalise on the numerous opportunities that data has to offer.

Activities, such as Data.gov.sg’s Apps4SG Competition, encourage participants to use government data to develop innovative applications that improve the way they live, work and play in Singapore. The winning application at the inaugural event, which ended on January 8, came from a 19-year-old whose app assists students to make informed education choices in a user-friendly manner.

IDA said it would continue to build on such initiatives, which will involve collaborating with other government agencies and bringing together the public and private sector to solve real-world problems.

Its Data Innovation Challenge is another example of the government’s crowdsourcing effort to address data-driven business challenges with data sets provided by government and corporate entities. It is an initiative to connect user enterprises and data providers with data specialists, ICT companies, research Institutes, and institutes of higher learning (IHLs) to develop prototypes, proof-of-concepts and analytics solutions for data-driven commercial problems. More than 300 entries were received and six prototypes were shortlisted in the first challenge issued by DSM Engineering Plastics. The Living Analytics Research Centre team from Singapore Management University won Round 1 with a predictive sales forecasting model that was the most accurate and innovative.

IDA has also collaborated with leading players in the ecosystem, as well as local IHLs to provide academic programmes to facilitate industry attachment programmes, and to develop and enhance analytics capabilities for local students and professionals.

The organisation recently appointed Prabir Sen to lead its new Data Sciences Group, which will provide capabilities to IDA’s data-driven projects.

• Photo credit: ©Konstantin Sutyagin/Shutterstock

Marriott receives metasearch bookings via DerbySoft

Marriott International is working with Dallas based technology services provider, DerbySoft, for its metasearch online distribution connectivity and caching technology

To date, DerbySoft has connected Marriott to metasearch sites that include Priceline’s Kayak; RoomKey; Expedia’s Trivago, the market leader in Europe, andQunar, the travel metasearch site that is majority owned by Baidu, China’s largest search engine.

(Pictured left: Dubai Marriott Hotel Al Jaddaf, courtesy of Marriott International)

He added that DerbySoft keeps its hotel cache accurate and up to date through itssmart caching predictive analytic software, which uses its proprietary algorithms to optimise how often it needs to update the cache of hotel rates and availability information.”

The proprietary smart cache system analyses historical booking patterns and rate changes, and interrogates shopping message results in order to determine how often it needs to query its hotel customers’ CRSs for rate and availability updates.

“For example, if 80% of our CRS queries indicate the hotel rate hasn’t changed, our smart cache software will automatically adjust the query schedule to send fewer query messages for that hotel for that particular period, and the system will continue to get smarter as time goes on,” Cotton said.

The smart cache system minimises the peak-hour traffic volumes to Marriott’s CRS, while maintaining high data accuracy and fast response times. “Consumers won’t notice the difference. In fact, the response times they experience may be shorter,” said Cotton.

lowcostholidays debuts in Australia with new site

Global discount travel brand, lowcostholidays, has launched its new website in Australia with a choice of 160 airlines and 200,000 hotels for travellers to choose from.

lowcostholidays.com.au offers a special A$5 lay-by scheme, allowing Australians to pay a A$5 deposit for accommodation-only deals in Australia or overseas, with the balance not required until 28 days before the stay.

Australia is the 13th new market for the fee-free site. The company has opened an office in Sydney, with a call centre team of travel consultants to help customers book their next holiday.

Newly appointed lowcostholidays Australian director, Sophie Cann, said she expected 60%of Australian sales to be for international holidays and 40% for domestic getaways, with the site focusing on the best available deals for flight and hotel packages or accommodation only, with properties mostly in the 3-5-star range.

“We know Australians want value-for-money – either at an overseas resort or an interstate hotel – and that’s what lowcostholdays is all about. We negotiate the lowest possible rates with hotels and pass on the savings to our customers. The site is fast and easy to use and we offer free travel and destination advice, flexible booking terms, with low cancellation and amendment charges, and also 24/7 assistance while you are away to ensure your holiday is hassle-free.”

Launched in the UK in 2004, lowcostholidays is one of the most popular travel sites in Europe with more than two million customers a year, It now operates in 11 countries in the UK and Europe, and launched in the US last October.