An Enterprise Ireland interview with Conor O'Sullivan

Conor: I’m Conor O’Sullivan, Chief Product Officer here at Datalex. At Datalex, we are all about empowering airlines to be great retailers by digitising the end-to-end travel retail experience on every device across every distribution channel and at every touchpoint in the customer journey. We work with some of the biggest global brands in retailing, in APAC region it would be Air China.

Conor: Our mission is to empower airlines to be great retailers. We empower airlines to deliver a differentiated retailing experience that excites people to book their next trip. As a challenger in the industry, where others see legacy issues, we see opportunity. Currently, the airline industry is going through a transition to offers and orders to better meet the needs of its travellers. At Datalex, our products are future-proofed for this state, so we are ready for this transition today.

In addition to this, we prioritise being a workplace that puts our core values of one team, we innovate, results matter, do right and perform, into practice every day. 

Conor: We provide airlines with a sophisticated and comprehensive product portfolio to drive revenue and profit as digital retailers. Our China Shopping & Pricing Engine is a unique product built exclusively for the Chinese Market. What sets it apart from other shopping and pricing providers is that Datalex only applies a charge per booking whereas other providers charge per shopping request. This means regardless of the look-to-book ratio, airlines only pay for bookings. This gives our customers the commercial edge, easily forecasting shopping and pricing as a cost of sale. It provides a standalone flight offer capability in the initial booking flow and re-shop flow. The pricing engine supports the ATPCO pricing capabilities and provides connectivity to any PSS, including TravelSky, for flight schedules and availability. A customer of ours utilising this product in the APAC region is Air China and they’ve become the first customer in the region to benefit from the latest version of our China Shopping & Pricing Engine.

Q: What are the marketing advantages of Datalex’s products and services? 
Conor: Datalex partners with airlines to create differentiation and leadership in the digital retail space. We are driving airlines future growth by digitalising the end-to-end travel retail experience. Our products enable airlines to cut through legacy complexity and better connect with their customers while also offering airlines the ability to deliver a competitive and differentiated airline retail experience.

Datalex’s products and platform operate at scale with over one billion shoppers annually. With over 2 trillion offers generated using our software annually, we are enabling airlines to create contextualised product and service offers across multiple channels. In addition to this, our products enable customer-centric airline retailing and differentiated content management which has led to over $20 billion in annual revenue transacted airlines around the world through our platform.
 

Q: The airline industry is in the midst of its transition towards Offers & Orders. Can you provide insights into the company’s R&D department and how they are preparing for this transition, as well as its short & long term plan? 
Conor: As you mentioned, the airline industry is beginning its transition towards Offers & Orders. Transitioning to Offers & Orders enables airlines to better meet the needs of its travellers with a single source of truth for the order. At Datalex, our products are architected deliberately for an Offers & Orders compliant future, however we know this transition won't happen overnight but will be a gradual, piece-by-piece approach. Experts at Datalex are regularly pressed by airlines for the typical pathway to Offers and Orders, but we’ll never given them a generic answer for this because every airline is different and that's the key differentiator of Datalex in the market as many IT providers tout their airline transition pathway as if it could be applied to any airline. Every airline has a different starting point and a different end state or goal, and we need to account for that. With Datalex products such as Dynamic Bundling and Pricing AI, airlines can kick start their transition today by readying their digital strategy for the future.  

Conor: As mentioned previously, we’re worked with Air China for over 12 years now and we’ve recently extended our partnership with the airline for an additional 3 years becoming the first customer in the region to benefit from Datalex’s latest version of its China Shopping & Pricing product specifically catering to the Chinese Market.

The continued recovery of travel in China and indeed the wider APAC market provides airlines with an opportunity to advance e-commerce functionality and drive ancillary revenue opportunities as customers return to the skies. Datalex’s recent research report, which surveyed over 10,000 global travellers, uncovered several insights into the ‘digital disparity’ that exists between traveller expectations and airlines that still exist. Specifically in the APAC market, it was found that a third (33%) of end travellers in Singapore believe that airlines are behind other e-commerce providers like Amazon, while this is slightly higher in Australia with 39% of end travellers believing they are behind. However, from an airline perspective, almost a quarter (24%) of airline executives globally believe they are ahead of other e-commerce websites. This perception gap highlights the post-pandemic sentiment of higher digital expectations that passengers are seeking, and a need for retail modernisation from airlines across the board.

At Datalex, we’ve established ourselves over 35 years to become a leading retailer for airlines around the world. We’re helping airlines transition to a world away from legacy and to a world of Offers and Orders. If you’re interested in finding out more, get in touch with Datalex today.