By Mary Li, Founder & CEO at Atlas
Earlier this month, we announced the launch of ATRIP – the Air Travel Retailing and Information Platform, powered by Atlas. I thought with ATRIP now out, I too should take the opportunity to put myself out there a bit more – to share with you my thoughts and experiences on travel, technology and the reality of building a truly international, purpose-led travel-tech business. And, to share with you why we’re so passionate about using next-generation technology to drive more data-led decision making across the industry and improve the experience of booking travel.
After all, travel connects us and so does technology. Travel by its very nature is global, and the technology that supports it should be too.
Atlas is my third travel technology start-up and my first truly international brand. My previous business Aslan, grew from a 40-person offline travel agency into the largest B2B air ticket platform in China.
Specializing in air travel has taught me a lot over the years and I’m determined to solve many of the problems agencies face when booking airlines for their customers, while also helping airlines increase distribution. Technology is the key enabler and I believe Atlas is the bridge between technological advancements in the east and customer experience innovations in the west. Atlas was born out of an ambition to use travel and technology to bring the world closer.
We’re three years into our start-up journey and with ATRIP now released, I’m excited to share some of the points I think make ATRIP the evolution of air content enablement…
1. More data, delivered faster for real-time optimization.
Access to more data gives our customers competitive advantage. Not only do we capture more first and third-party data to help our customers understand consumer behavior in real-time, we also provide a data intelligence platform to help identify the opportunities for growth.
Currently, Atlas facilitates over 400 million searches per day. The data underlying these searches is captured, organized and utilized to help our agency customers better understand consumer behaviour and traveling preferences in real-time. Competition for bookings is fierce so the speed and accuracy of search results gives our customers the edge.
By optimizing airline performance, we have delivered an increase of up to 300% in targeted airline bookings and uplifts of up to 97% in agency sales for our customers. I couldn’t be more proud of our progress so far.
2. API simplicity.
I’m a very technical CEO. I’m also a recovering perfectionist and I know what great code looks like. I’ve personally hired every Developer in our team and I can say without a doubt, it is world class.
Our API manages the complexities of unstandardized LCC processes, simply. We’ve done all the work in the back-end to make integration quick and easy. While many platforms require months of development, our API can be implemented within days. We openly share our API with our developer community because together, we can standardize and simplify the way LCCs manage their bookings and data.
Simple integration is one thing. Performance is everything.
I believe ATRIP delivers more choice to agencies, not just because we offer over 170 LCCs but because our API performance is faster and more stable. It’s a well-known fact in the industry that airline response times can be problematic. Timing out can be the difference between a profitable sale and a lost customer. ATRIP monitors performance and using our unique caching model, enhances search results to ensure agencies are only provided with the options that can be fulfilled by the airline.
3. Superior infrastructure.
None of the above matters if the infrastructure underneath is old, and let’s face it – the travel industry is plagued by legacy systems. Databases have come a long way in a very short time and ours is beyond next-generation. The accessibility, stability and calculation ability of our infrastructure is what powers our data capabilities and our API performance.
We use cloud architecture which is not unique these days. What differentiates us is how we’ve leveraged global infrastructure and built a bridge to localize data. We’ve taken the best of a centralized system and enhanced its power to ensure peak performance, wherever our customers are in the world.
I realize that not all CEOs are as technical as I am, but I do hope that knowing we’re focused on the above three fundamentals will help them and their teams feel more at ease with taking on new technologies.
Supporting the growth of the travel industry after such a difficult few years, is so important to us. With 47% of seat capacity in 2022 served by LCCs, we believe low-cost is a key growth opportunity for agencies.
It’s also a way for more people to experience the world of travel.
And this is the purpose behind Atlas – to enable more people to travel. Because only through travel do we experience what it’s like for others – to see the world as they do – to appreciate our differences and celebrate our similarities.
But don’t just take my word for it. You can take a look under the hood of ATRIP yourself by registering here. I hope to see you in our Flight Deck one day soon!
