Mango strengthens relationship with the travel trade – signs agreement with Amadeus
Did you know that almost all growth in air travel in South Africa has taken place in the low-cost segment recently?
The reality is that South African domestic air travellers have become increasingly price-sensitive. They value the concept of low fares and have become accustomed to paying for most ancillaries, such as baggage and food.
Obviously, there is still a role for so-called legacy full-service carriers but the demand is shrinking. The existence of high-density routes with mostly point-to-point demand such as Johannesburg-Cape Town and Johannesburg-Durban complements the equation for a successful operation.
In these changing times where low-cost carriers are increasingly gaining ground, it has become crucial for travel agents to be able to access LCC content through the same search and booking flow as that used for traditional carriers.
The good news is that this is now possible. Mango and Amadeus today announced a content agreement that brings the carrier's fares, including corporate fares, to Amadeus' extensive network.
Mango has a significant footprint as far as distribution and payment channels are concerned making it possible for travellers to buy and transact with Mango in many ways. We are also following a strategy to diversify our revenue stream and adding the Amadeus GDS channel will make our inventory available to the Amadeus GDS community.
By virtue of our business model, most of our sales are done directly but there is a growing community that prefers to access the Mango product through intermediaries on the Amadeus platform which is a significant channel in the markets we serve. We expect to see significant revenue flows from this channel which will provide access to the Mango inventory at more than 100 000 points of sale in more than 190 countries.
For travel agents, direct messaging with Mango on Amadeus will allow seamless access to Mango's content and PNRs will be confirmed immediately with a Mango record locator. This enables travel sellers to easily make changes to any Mango booking and use the same invoicing and billing process as for any other air content available through Amadeus.
These are exciting times for Mango and Amadeus.
Source: Amadeus Blog
Writer: Nic Vlok, CEO, Mango