Insights

Industry Perspective on the Offer and Order Management Journey

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The airline industry is transforming how it sells and distributes services, integrates retail systems, and engages travelers. A major focus of the modern retailing transformation is centered on modernizing toward an offer and order management setup. Airlines are moving away from decades-old legacy Passenger Service Systems (PSS) and toward offer optimization, native order systems, personalized retailing, and AI-driven solutions.

This blog explores the current state of offer and order management in the airline industry, the strategic priorities for the next few years, key challenges, and how technology is enabling this transformation.

Momentum Builds for Native Orders

Where Are Airlines Today?

The airline industry has seen significant progress in modernizing airline distribution systems with NDC and the customer experience. Leading airlines like Turkish Airlines are now actively working to implement Order Management as a system of record, which simplifies operations by replacing traditional PNRs (Passenger Name Records) and ticketing with a seamless, customer-centric order-based approach.

This shift is no longer just a long-term vision; it’s happening now. Industry bodies like IATA and IATA’s Airline Retailing Consortium are playing a crucial role in facilitating airlines’ and technology providers’ journey towards 100% Offers & Orders end-state. Their publication of extensive documentation and frameworks has been instrumental in demystifying offer and order transformation, enabling stakeholders across the industry to get on board.

“The Airlines Retailing Consortium is a group of advanced airline adopters that works through IATA to accelerate the journey towards a legacy-free end state of 100% Offers & Orders. The Consortium was established around three years ago, and now it includes 17 airlines/airline groups who are producing thought leadership on the way forward. While IT providers and other airline partners are not members, they are consulted and committed to supporting the transition. Everyone is welcome to download the Consortium publications.”

Oleg Kit, headshot
Oleg Kit
Senior Manager Airline Retailing, IATA
IATA Logo
“The documentation that IATA created on behalf of the Airline Retailing Consortium is written very well and we are using it for each member on board to understand how we can proceed forward, especially with the procurement considerations.”

Lokman Ayas, headshot
Lokman Ayas
Offer & Order Solutions Manager, Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines Logo

Early Benefits for Adopters

Airlines that have committed to these transformations are reaping clear rewards:

  • Enhanced Customer Experiences: More targeted and dynamically priced offers improve satisfaction and increase conversion rates.
  • Operational Agility: By replacing rigid legacy systems, airlines can collaborate more effectively across departments and innovate faster.
  • Revenue Growth: Retailing new products and services beyond flights gives airlines a competitive edge.
“First of all, the first mover airlines clearly see a first mover advantage. They really put their skin in the game. The Offers & Orders transformation covers three types of benefits: cost, revenue, and customer experience benefits. In addition, the decommissioning of the PSS and other legacy systems is something that is clearly on the radar of different airlines, and they often see that as a part of the transformation.” Oleg Kit, Senior Manager Airline Retailing, IATA

The competitive urgency is clear. Leading airlines like Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa Group, Air Canada, Finnair, Air France-KLM, Saudia, to name a few, and startups such as Riyadh Air are all shifting gears to lead the market and avoid being left behind.

Priorities for Airlines Over the Next 12–18 Months

To accelerate this evolution, airlines are focusing on key strategic priorities in the near term.

Transition to Native Orders

Switching from PSS to order management systems should be the foundation of any airline’s modernization strategy. Native orders allow airlines to integrate their product offerings across systems seamlessly, replacing outdated methods of managing passenger data and revenue.

“In the short term, we would like to achieve creating native orders that we can use and consume in other systems. Otherwise, if we still keep PNRs, tickets and EMDs in the game, they are restricting us to reach the full potential. That’s why the most important thing in this journey is to replace the PSS or create an order that you can consume in different systems.” Lokman Ayas, Offer & Order Solutions Manager, Turkish Airlines

The key is building flexible, modular systems that are adaptable to future demands. Retrofitting current monolithic systems with half-measures could lead to inefficiencies down the road.

“What we don’t want (as an industry) is the e-ticket story – taking a paper ticket and just making an electronic version of it. If we do the same thing with our legacy PSS and just put it into new technology, the industry won’t benefit.”

Daniel Friedli, headshot
Daniel Friedli
CEO, Travel in Motion
Travel in Motion Logo

Offer Optimization Through Data

Airlines must focus on harnessing high-quality data, including shopping request data and passenger attributes, to enhance offer precision. By leveraging this data, airlines can create more relevant and targeted offers, improve segmentation, and implement dynamic pricing strategies that boost conversion rates. AI-driven pricing precision plays a key role — not only in determining the right price for the initial flight or right-to-fly but also in optimizing pricing across ancillaries and bundles. This approach ensures more meaningful and value-driven offers, ultimately driving higher revenue per customer.

Adopt API-Driven Open Architectures

Legacy systems are a bottleneck. Airlines need to prioritize open, modular architectures that enable a best-of-breed approach for each airline’s commercial strategy, and easier communication between offer management, order management, and delivery systems, especially when separate modules are provided by different IT vendors. Flexible systems allow airlines to pick the technology that best suits their business case, as well as test and scale new products with minimal disruptions.

Enablers and Overcoming Challenges

The Role of Standards

One of the technological hurdles is the need to constantly evolve and mature standards to meet the business needs, the needed scale and complex use cases in the industry. Frameworks like NDC (New Distribution Capability) and ONE Order provide a foundation, but there is still work to be done to ensure they fully support the complexity of airline operations.

Given this reality, hybrid models must serve as a bridge until standards are robust enough to support full-scale adoption of native orders. Airlines need to prioritize cross-departmental alignment to avoid commercial and technological roadblocks.

Managing Change

Change management remains one of the greatest challenges facing airlines today. For transformation to succeed, employees at every level must understand the reasoning behind these changes and be equipped with the tools necessary to implement them effectively. Stakeholder education is essential. Bringing IT, operations, finance, and other departments into alignment early will reduce friction as airlines standardize their processes and tools.

Ensuring Vendor Flexibility and a Modular-first Approach

Many existing contracts with IT vendors are not designed for the flexibility required to implement open, modular systems. Airlines need to work with vendors to renegotiate terms that prioritize innovation and interoperability while mitigating risks.

“One of the challenges PROS spots are contracts. Going forward, airlines need to make sure openness and modularity are built in there, not just from a technical perspective, but moreover from commercial and contractual perspective.”

Christopher Allison, headshot
Christopher Allison
Director, Offer & Order Management, PROS
PROS Logo

Technology as the Transformation Catalyst

Co-Creation Between Business and IT

For technology to enable meaningful change, business goals and IT processes must be aligned. Airlines and technology providers should co-create solutions that are shaped by real-world needs. This collaborative approach ensures technology investments deliver measurable business value.

An excellent example of this is the use of IATA’s Business Reference Architecture, which aligns capabilities across teams to ensure consistent understanding and streamlined implementation.

Modular Innovation

Airlines like Turkish Airlines are emphasizing modular system design. Instead of overhauling entire legacy systems at once, they’re phasing their transitions using smaller, interoperable modules connected through APIs. This phased transformation minimizes risk and allows quick wins along the way that generate value for the airline, as well as for travelers.

AI and Product Catalogs

AI is emerging as a powerful asset for modernizing offer and order management. From dynamic pricing to enriched customer insights, AI enables airlines to optimize their strategies in ways that were previously unattainable.

Modern product catalogs, powered by AI, ensure consistency across offers and orders, delivery systems, and financial systems, while unlocking new opportunities to bundle and retail experiences beyond airfare.

“PROS together with ATPCO, is already looking at how we can enable the product catalog to be deployed without having to bring all of your partners along at the same kind of pace to help accelerate those airlines that want to move away from the paradigm of product and price being linked together.” Christopher Allison, Director, Offer & Order Management, PROS

By separating Product and Stock Management from operations and the PSS, solutions like PROS Portfolio Management can empower airlines with flexibility and innovation in their product strategy, paving the way for revenue growth.

The Retailing Future of Airlines

The future of offer and order management lies in selling experiences, not just flights.

AI-Driven Customer Interaction

AI agents are likely to play a central role in how customers engage with airlines. Whether it’s personalized chatbots or AI-powered dynamic bundling, the possibilities are endless. Airlines must design today’s systems with tomorrow’s AI-native interfaces in mind.

Creating Value Beyond Tickets

The shift to selling experiences is already underway. Branded fares and ancillary revenue streams have proven that passengers value options tailored to their needs. Whether it’s personalized in-flight experiences, hotel and rental car bundles, or exclusive vacation packages, airlines now have the tools to curate compelling journeys for travelers.

Real-Time Adaptability

The path forward is agile. Airlines must be ready to adapt to evolving demands and technologies in real time, ensuring their systems evolve to the latest industry and technological API standards and remain future-ready, as customer expectations continue to rise.

Charting the Path Forward

The evolution of offer and order management holds immense potential for airlines to transform revenue generation, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. But as with any significant transformation, success depends on preparation, collaboration, and innovation.

Airlines that prioritize customer-centric offer optimization, native orders, and modular technologies will be well-positioned to thrive in this new era of retailing.

Are you ready to make the leap? Connect with us at PROS for tailored solutions to accelerate your offer and order transformation.

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