Navitaire

Navitaire is a subsidiary of Amadeus that provides technology services to the airline and rail industries.[1][2] Its headquarters are in Minneapolis with offices in London, Manila, Salt Lake City, and Sydney.[3] It has data centers in Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and Sydney.[4] David Evans has held the role of global managing director since 2013.[5] Navitaire has approximately 60 clients and 750 employees.[3][6] it typically works with low-cost carriers (LCC) and hybrid airlines[7][8] and is the leading passenger service system provider for the LCC market.[9][10] As of 2014, the firm serves 43% of the top 100 LCCs, and 47% of the top 30 LCCs as measured by seats sold per week.[10] Clients include airlines Wizz Air,[11] Jetstar,[12] Spirit Airlines,[6] Azul Brazilian Airlines, [13] HK Express,[14] and Volaris.[15] The company also works with railway company SNCF and its subsidiary iDTGV.[1][16]

Navitaire was founded as PRA Solutions in 1993 by Accenture.[2] It initially provided airline revenue accounting software and revenue protection software for airlines.[4][3] The company then developed a direct-distribution platform to book airline reservations, "World Network," an alternative to the global distribution system traditionally used by travel agents to sell airline flights.[3][17] In 2000, PRA Solutions purchased the Open Skies reservation system from Hewlett Packard, and in 2001, changed its name to Navitaire.[4][3]

In 2002, the firm implemented codeshare technology for Virgin Blue, and the company later introduced multi-city bookings at the request of Jetstar.[18] Following Hewlett Packard's announcement in 2001 of its plans to discontinue support for the HP3000 hardware that the Open Skies system operated on, Navitaire developed a replacement reservation system called New Skies.[19][8][20] The company began converting clients to the new system in 2005.[21] Navitaire was acquired by Amadeus in 2015.[22]

Navitaire's passenger service system is New Skies, which was introduced in 2005.[21] It introduced features including a low fare finder and multi-city bookings.[23][24] The system provides reservations via the Internet, call centers, and through global distribution systems (GDS) using a ticketless model as well as enabling e-ticketing.[25][24] It also allows integration with other travel services such as travel insurance and car rental, as well as codeshare agreements with other airlines.[2] As of 2010, the firm had 80 such codeshare connections to partner airlines, as well as nine GDS connections.[24][26]

Navitaire offers additional products and services including Travel Commerce, a platform to aid in ancillary revenue generation and a loyalty system. The company also offers real-time reporting, revenue accounting software and revenue management.[24][2] It provides a reservations management system for railways called Navitaire Rail, which facilitates multi-channel distribution sales and station check-ins for rail carriers.[1]

In October 2010, Navitaire was awarded for Best Sales and Distribution Innovation at the 4th Annual Budgies World Low Cost Airlines Awards.[27] The company was awarded Innovation of the Year in the category of Ancillary Revenue & Merchandising at Airline Information's 2013 Mega Awards,[28] after being named a runner-up in the Ancillary Revenue & Merchandising - Most Innovative Technology category at the Mega Awards event held in November 2012.[29] In December 2013, Navitaire received a Tekne Award from Minnesota High Tech Association for its ticketless system and other services.[30] In March 2019, Navitaire became the first passenger revenue accounting provider to be granted ONE Order (00) Capable certification form the International Air Transport Association (IATA).[31]