How Transparency and Smarter Partnerships Help Travel Sellers Build Loyalty

LCCs Are Changing Travel: Here’s How Travel Sellers Can Embrace the Shift

Travel Sellers can no longer afford to treat low-cost carriers (LCCs) as niche. LCCs now define the biggest growth opportunities in global travel. According to Amadeus’ Global Report , LCCs are expected to account for nearly half of global seat capacity by 2030.

For Travel Sellers, this shift brings tremendous opportunities: more LCC content choices, increased retailing potential, and the chance to build lasting customer loyalty.  

Yet capturing these opportunities isn’t straightforward. LCC content remains fragmented across platforms, ancillaries vary widely by airline, and post-booking servicing adds complexity and cost.

Without standardisation and seamless integration, these barriers can quickly erode the profitability LCCs promise. 

Traditional consolidators and aggregators helped bridge the gap in the past. But today, the LCC market is evolving.

Success now requires transparency, scalable partnerships that drive both trust and revenue optimisation.  

Moving Beyond Reliance on Legacy Aggregator  

To scale quickly, Travel sellers were once forced to source content from multiple suppliers including aggregators and consolidators when LCC content was harder to access.

But as LCCs have matured into global leaders, these legacy models are showing their limits:  

• LCC content gaps: While Full-Service Carriers (FSCs) standardised their content through GDS, LCCs largely bypassed these channels. Travel Sellers struggle to access complete LCC inventory, forced to aggregate fragmented content from numerous disconnected sources with varying levels of tech performance. 

• Ancillary retailing challenges: Ancillary products (like baggage, seats and branded fares) rolled out without consistent standards.This, combined with the slow adaptation of Travel Sellers, creates structural complexity that hinders effective upselling. 

• Payment & settlement challenges: Without IATA Clearing House, Travel Sellers face FX markups, multi-currency issues, and settlement delays — creating unnecessary friction and added expense.  

• Disruption handling & servicing strain: Disruption handling often falls on Travel Sellers when airlines don’t notify travellers, or when information from aggregators or consolidators doesn’t reach them – damaging trust and inflating costs.  

These aren’t just barriers—they’re opportunities. Travel Sellers who modernise their LCC retailing can gain a competitive edge by offering more flights, more airlines, richer ancillary options, and a truly seamless customer experience.  

Transparency Isn’t Optional—It’s a Strategic Advantage

For years, many Travel Sellers relied on aggregators and consolidators to access LCC content, but this reliance has come at a cost.

These suppliers often undercut airlines’ own fares through manipulated fare rules, fake PNRs, and hidden mark-ups or markdowns.  

On the surface, this may win bookings. Yet it frequently results in frustrated travellers, brand damage for Travel Sellers, and strained relationships with LCCs.

Travel Sellers who want LCC approved content don’t face these issues. The shift now is clear: the future of LCC retailing lies in transparent partnerships that deliver value for both the traveller and Travel Seller.

Transparency is no longer a “nice to have”—it’s a competitive advantage that builds loyalty and customer trust.

Atlas: A Technology Partner for Smarter LCC Retailing

Atlas (atlaslovestravel.com) is proud to take a different path. We’re not a flight aggregator or consolidator. We’re a global technology solutions provider focused on making LCC retailing simpler, smarter, and scalable.

With direct access to LCC content from 140+ LCCs and analytics from 1 billion+ daily route searches, Atlas helps Travel Sellers thrive in this evolving market

Transparency in practice for Atlas means:

• No fare games: Our business model is not to manipulate fares by marking them down to win bookings or marking ancillaries up to compensate.Instead, we focus on passing airline fares to Travel Sellers in their purest form — exactly as the LCCs intended.

• Clear fare conditions, no amendments: What Travel Sellers see upfront is what they get. Fare conditions stay transparent and unchanged.Refunds go directly to travellers, and there are no hidden markups or grey-area practices that compromise the customer experience.

• Seamless payments: There’s no complex web of intermediaries. Travel Sellers either pay the airline directly or pay Atlas, ensuring faster settlements and reduced friction.

💡 Currently, 30% of our global bookings use Virtual Credit Card passthrough — giving partners a transparent and efficient way to process payments in real time, a capability many aggregators can’t yet offer.

• Ancillary access in one flow: Seat selection, baggage, and branded fare options are standardised for seamless upselling. Real-time inventory ensures complete, accurate itineraries every time.

💡 Today, ancillary attachment rates on bookings made through Atlas are approaching 40% — a clear sign of how easy it is for Travel Sellers to upsell in one smooth flow.

• Efficient post-booking process: Refunds and cancellations processed with transparency and speed. Atlas handles 95% of refunds in under 15 minutes using AI-powered operations  

The Path Forward: Scale Smarter with Transparency

Travel Sellers who embrace this model don’t just improve customer experience—they empower their customers and secure a long-term competitive edge: