In the same week that kulula.com announced its exit from GDSs, new airline, LIFT, announced that it was rolling out its agent distribution strategy, which will include GDSs.
LIFT’s strategy will also include wide-scale API integrations with South African agency consortiums.
LIFT’s head of commercial, Cilliers Jordaan, confirmed that LIFT had been activated on Hahn Air’s X1-Air solution and that the airline expected its fares to be aligned in all of the GDSs by the end of the month. This means that LIFT flights will soon be bookable via the standard GDS reservation and ticketing process, issued on the HR-169 ticket.
Cilliers added that the airline’s Hahn Air activation was a temporary solution and that it eventually wanted to see LIFT’s inventory loaded directly in the various GDSs.
LIFT also has an API in place for agents to connect to its inventory directly. Direct connect links with LIFT’s API have already been activated with Travelstart and Computicket locally and with Travelfusion and Kiwi.com internationally. Cilliers said LIFT was also in the process of activating a number of additional connections that would see the airline’s content reflecting directly in most of SA’s travel consortiums’ booking platforms. “Our service provider, aeroCRS, is a small and agile technology company that has been offering agents great turnaround times in getting connections finalised,” he added.
When asked why the airline was rolling out a GDS agent distribution channel strategy at a time when many established airlines were moving away from these channels, Cilliers said GDS distribution was undoubtedly an expensive way to distribute one’s inventory but added that LIFT, as a new brand, needed to ensure that it was visible and easily accessible to all channels that were interested in booking them. “Our aim is to distribute our inventory through as many channels as quickly as possible in order to grow our brand,” said Cilliers.
