Etihad to implement ‘Amadeus Fare Families’ tool in indirect channels to accelerate international growth

Amadeus, a leading technology partner for the global travel industry, today announced that Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will implement the Amadeus Fare Families tool in the indirect channel, to support its innovative merchandising strategy. The move to incorporate Amadeus’ cutting-edge technology solution will help the airline achieve its objective of accelerating international growth through differentiation and upsell opportunities, via its extensive sales network. 

Through Amadeus Fare Families, Etihad Airways will brand and differentiate its products and services by showing the full value of each packaged fare on all its retailing interfaces for all customer segments and worldwide points of sale. With clear descriptions on service characteristics and terms and conditions, both travellers and travel agents benefit from greater transparency in the shopping process. In doing so, travel agents will be better equipped to advise their customers and proactively upsell from one fare family to the other, based on the traveller’s needs and preferences.

Peter Baumgartner, Chief Commercial Officer, Etihad Airways, says, “We are delighted to extend our ‘Fare Choices’ to the Amadeus travel community, thereby ensuring that our customers can always enjoy our full range of innovative services, irrespective of which channel they choose to shop on. Etihad Airways’ offering, which combines air and non-air services to deliver the very best travel experiences, is a source of great pride for us. We are confident the opportunities the new tool opens up, will create an enhanced customer experience for our travellers who can now benefit from greater travel customisation.

“Through Amadeus, our packaged fares will now also be available in the indirect channel‎ worldwide and displayed at all points of sale in a way that is consistent with our brand.”

Maher Koubaa, Vice President, Middle East and North Africa, Amadeus Airline Distribution and IT, adds, "We are excited to support Etihad’s marketing and growth objectives in the indirect channel. This demonstrates the expertise we bring to the industry, generating higher revenues by deploying merchandising strategies across channels. Through greater product transparency and the full end-to-end integration of the solution, our travel agency community will be able to guide and service customers more comprehensively and efficiently.” 

Etihad files its fare families using ATPCo Branded Fares and Amadeus is the first technology provider to support this new industry standard. Apart from filing centrally, airlines can also file their fare families directly in the Amadeus system if they so prefer. 

Etihad is the first Middle Eastern carrier to implement Amadeus Fare Families, which allows airlines to brand and differentiate their products in the indirect channel. It is a completely automated solution that prompts travel agents with upsell opportunities and is fully integrated with the travel agent booking flow as well as their mid- and back-office systems to facilitate customer servicing. To date, 17 airlines have implemented Amadeus Fare Families to distribute their branded fares through Amadeus.