Amadeus data shows that during Celine Dion's Paris residency, international flight searches to Paris rose 11% YoY, and bookings rose 5%. The U.S. accounts for 26.5% of searches, followed by Brazil and Canada. APAC shows strong growth, with Thailand bookings up 200%. Paris hotel RevPAR is up 13% YoY, with longer stays.
The article analyzes the financial performance of three flight search companies: Skyscanner, Kiwi.com, and Wego. Skyscanner generated approximately $660 million in revenue, up 24%, with a 32% operating margin. Kiwi.com's revenue fell 20% to $264 million, facing debt pressure. Wego doubled revenue to $63.5 million but with near-zero margins. These companies illustrate divergent outcomes in the Google- and AI-exposed travel sector.
Travelport released updates to its Flights API version 25.11.x, introducing features such as requesting mixed cabins per leg for NDC, NDC bundled offers, NDC disruption handling, requesting ATPCO Cat 31/33 penalties for GDS, and enhancements to Premium Flex Search. These updates aim to improve search flexibility, enhance NDC content handling, and better manage disruptions.
Travelport has released updates to its Flights API, including NDC enhancements such as Air Canada Flight Pass payment, bundled ancillary offers, and disruption handling flows. For GDS, new features include Premium Flex Search with multi-PCC and flexible date search, and mixed cabin requests per leg. These updates aim to improve search and booking flexibility, directly impacting travel agencies and corporate travel management.
Skyscanner has launched an app in ChatGPT, allowing travelers to search for flights using natural language, get live results, and compare options and prices. Users can also adjust dates or airports via message. The app is available in the UK and US for global flight options, with booking redirected to Skyscanner's website. This is part of a trend of travel brands launching apps in ChatGPT, following Expedia, Booking.com, Hyatt, and others.
Travelport Flights API release notes cover multiple updates, including NDC bundled offers, NDC disruption handling, Air Canada Flight Pass support, and Premium Flex Search for GDS. These enhancements aim to improve search, booking, and change management capabilities, providing developers and travel agents with more flexible tools.
Travelport Flights API release notes show a new Premium Flex Search feature, allowing flexible search dates and PCCs, supporting up to three PCCs and date ranges of up to three days before/after. This feature is GDS-only, not available for NDC, and requires specific customer provisioning.