Ramax Group by order of Aeroflot implemented a sale project through the airline's direct channel

2021: IATA Direct Sales Channel

On September 15, 2021, RAMAX Group announced that by order of Aeroflot PJSC, it had implemented a group of projects to create a direct channel for the sale of transportation and services under the IATA New Distribution Capabilities (NDC) standard.

As a result of the project, Aeroflot received a tool for direct sale of tickets and services through the NDC gateway according to IATA standards. The solution allows you to implement various offers for customers, booking flights and services in your own distribution channel of the airline.

In order to reduce costs and increase the transparency of sales channels for passengers, airlines strive to transfer a significant share of sales to their own capacities. Travel agents and meta-search engines interact directly with the Passenger Service System (PSS) in accordance with the NDC standard, which is developed and actively supported by the IATA regulator. Thus, sales are made via direct distribution channel through integration with carrier information systems using API.

By reducing the costs of selling tickets and services, Aeroflot managed to increase business efficiency: in the direct sales channel, agents are offered more attractive conditions than in the classic distribution scheme, "said Sergey Krylov, Deputy General Director for Information Technology of Aeroflot PJSC. - The joint project team developed a solution that closely integrated the NDC gateway with the airline's search and booking system. The developed solution implements the logic and rules dictated by Aeroflot's business processes, and interacts directly with PSS to form offers, book tickets and services, as well as to carry out post-sale services.

The project team was implemented in several phases. So, in 2017, the functionality of finding and creating orders was developed. In 2018, the architecture of the solution for handling large volumes of traffic was optimized. At the next stage, the system functionality was increased: after-purchase order maintenance (exchanges, returns, changes to the order) and the sale of additional services (both at the time of order formation and thereafter) were introduced, and an agency sales scheme was implemented.

{{quote 'Aeroflot uses the PSS SabreSonic passenger services system, which did not have its own NDC gateway implementation, so its close integration with related systems was required, "said Yuri Sinko, head of site and mobile application development at RAMAX Group. - This task was solved with the help of a special orchestrating layer. In addition, Aeroflot has quite strict requirements for the performance of the system when performing search queries. The microservice architecture of the solution, combined with the parallel operation of many instances of the application, made it possible to achieve optimal distribution of traffic between servers and, thus, balance the load on computing resources. }}

Specialists of RAMAX Group and Aeroflot continue to work on the development of the solution. In 2021, the implementation of the NDC gateway was completely completed. The system is in industrial operation, and as business requirements arise, its functionality increases. The project plays a significant role in restoring the passenger transport industry after the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.