From Discovery to Direct Booking: How Airlines Are Making Offer Marketing Work Harder   

PROS is a dedicated travel technology company helping airlines outperform with AI-driven retailing and offer management that delivers customer-centric experiences and maximizes revenue performance.

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A traveler discovers a destination, sees an appealing fare, and clicks through to the airline’s website. What happens next can determine whether that interest becomes a booking. 

Can they find the price that caught their attention? Does the page answer their questions? Is there a clear path from exploring a trip to purchasing it? 

At PROS Outperform 2026, American Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, and Cyprus Airways shared how they are improving those moments. In a panel moderated by Anais Engelmajer, Senior Director, Product Management at PROS, the airlines explored how relevant content, real-time fares, and connected digital experiences can turn discovery into measurable commercial results. 

Their approaches reflect different priorities and resources. Together, they show how offer marketing can help airlines connect what travelers want to know with what they are ready to buy. 

Match the Content to the Traveler’s Intent 

For American Airlines, the opportunity began with reconsidering what its fare pages could do. 

The airline had been using PROS airTRFX pages to generate demand through organic search. But the team saw potential to make those pages more helpful to travelers and more effective at bringing them into the booking journey. 

Working with PROS, American undertook a year-long project to reimagine the experience. 

“We redeveloped the content to provide destination information and also meet the customer where they were at based on their intent and how they arrived on the page,” said Pedro Noda, Manager, Digital Content and Localization at American Airlines. 

That meant expanding beyond fare displays to include information that helps customers make travel decisions: destination content, international travel guidance, and frequently asked questions. 

The redesigned pages combined that content with custom components developed through collaboration between American’s design team and PROS. 

At the time of the session, the redesign had been live for three weeks. The focus was on learning: how customers engaged with the content, where the pages appeared in searches, and how effectively they helped travelers enter the booking path. 

The lesson for airlines is practical. A traveler researching a destination may need different information from someone ready to select a flight. Pages can serve both needs by pairing useful answers with relevant offers and a clear next step. 

Keep the Offer Connected Across Touchpoints 

For SriLankan Airlines, a priority was consistency between the offer that attracts a customer and the experience that follows. 

The airline had developed more than 4,000 pages using PROS airTRFX, covering different destination and market combinations. It then brought real-time fares to its homepage and airTRFX pages, before extending them into paid campaigns on Google and social media. 

Previously, including fares in advertisements had created a maintenance challenge. Airline prices change frequently, making manual updates difficult to sustain. 

Real-time fare content provided a way to bring prices into campaigns without relying on that manual process. 

For Bimali Malalasekara, Manager Digital Commerce at SriLankan Airlines, the reason was closely tied to customer trust. An advertisement creates an expectation. If the customer clicks through and encounters something different, friction enters the journey. 

The commercial objective was equally clear: paid media investment needed to generate bookings as well as attention. 

SriLankan began with a small number of campaigns and compared performance before and after introducing real-time fares. Bimali reported improvements in click-through and conversion rates, prompting a gradual rollout to additional campaigns. 

She also reported a 30% increase in Offer Marketing’s contribution to the airline’s online sales. 

The takeaway is to treat the advertisement, landing page, and booking journey as connected parts of the same experience. Relevant pricing helps customers evaluate an offer earlier and gives them a stronger reason to continue. 

Put Offers at the Center of the Digital Storefront 

Cyprus Airways approached the opportunity from the perspective of a small airline with limited resources. 

It wanted a stronger digital presence and more direct sales. Having already seen results from Offer Marketing, the airline challenged PROS to make airTRFX its main website, alongside a booking engine change and the integration of FastSearch shopping capabilities. 

The project was delivered in five months. 

For Pavlos Sarkas, IT Manager at Cyprus Airways, the change addressed a familiar problem: marketing messages and current prices were not always aligned. A traveler might see a promoted fare and then struggle to find it, while digital, marketing, and revenue management teams worked to coordinate updates. 

Bringing offers into the storefront helped reduce that manual coordination. 

It also supported new-route promotion. As future flights became available, customers could discover and book them through the website without the same level of intervention previously required to populate pricing information. 

Pavlos reported increased bookings, stronger direct-channel performance, and more returning visitors. He also described a continuing appetite for automation, particularly given the size of the airline’s digital team. 

The broader lesson is that the homepage can help travelers discover what is available and move toward a purchase. Current, visible offers give visitors something concrete to explore. 

Make Content Useful for New Ways of Searching 

Discovery is changing as travelers use conversational tools alongside traditional search. 

American Airlines is working with PROS to understand how its content can appear in those experiences and encourage travelers to visit the airline’s pages. 

“Our content is really written in a way that helps answer the questions that customers are asking during their search,” Pedro said. 

That approach connects emerging search behavior with an established customer need: useful answers. 

For airlines, it means evaluating whether destination and route content addresses the questions travelers bring to their research. American is also considering that performance across its global markets, recognizing that discovery extends beyond a single country or language. 

Visibility is one part of the objective. The next is ensuring that travelers who arrive find relevant information, appropriate offers, and a straightforward route into booking. 

Keep Improving the Experience 

Across the panel, modernization emerged as an ongoing practice. 

American is using engagement data to guide further development. SriLankan is expanding real-time fares across more campaigns. Cyprus Airways is exploring additional opportunities in ancillary promotion, automation, and offer marketing. 

“Our goal is really to continuously evolve the product and not just let it sit there,” Pedro said. 

That mindset helps airlines get more from capabilities they already have. It creates a cycle of learning: observe how travelers discover and engage with offers, identify friction, and improve the experience. 

These priorities also inform the direction of PROS Kairos. The panel discussed the planned evolution of Offer Marketing into Kairos, including more connected intelligence and conversational, action-oriented workflows. That future direction builds on the work airlines are doing today with airTRFX and other Offer Marketing capabilities. 

Bimali captured the shared ambition: 

“I would say it’s all about offering the right offer to the right customer at the right time through the right platform.” 

For airline customers, each of those elements matters. Relevant content earns attention. Current fares make the opportunity tangible. A connected experience helps turn that interest into a direct relationship—and a booking. 

Explore PROS Offer Marketing to discover how relevant content and real-time offers can help your airline turn digital discovery into direct revenue.

Theme Quote Speaker
Relevant offers “It’s all about offering the right offer to the right customer at the right time through the right platform.” Bimali Malalasekara, SriLankan Airlines
Search and discovery “Our content is really written in a way that helps answer the questions that customers are asking during their search.” Pedro Noda, American Airlines
Continuous improvement “Our goal is really to continuously evolve the product and not just let it sit there.” Pedro Noda, American Airlines
Direct customer relationships “Now we’re seeing more returning customers that they didn’t know our website before, and they’re just coming back because they know they’re going to find what they’re looking for.” Pavlos Sarkas, Cyprus Airways
Connecting content to bookings “The experience in getting the customers the information they need and into the booking path is the most important thing to really make those pages work for us.” Pedro Noda, American Airlines
Customer intent “We’re really focused on rewriting the content, evolving it over time and making sure that the offer is matching the intent.” Pedro Noda, American Airlines

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