Finnair has selected Amadeus’ Digital Retail API to simplify bookings on the airline's website and mobile app.
The website and mobile app handle one quarter of the airline’s sales, and together form the single most important sales channel according to Finnair.
Jaron Millner, vice president of direct business at Finnair says:
“We want to make the shopping experience more intuitive and enjoyable for our customers. "The Amadeus Digital API gives us the flexibility we have been looking for, and allows us to develop the booking experience together with our customers to find the booking and shopping flow that works best for them.”
The Amadeus Digital API relies on REST (Representational State Transfer)/JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) which offer flexible and developer-friendly access to back-end resources; in this case the Amadeus e-Retail solution.
With the API, the airline can tailor offers to customer needs, without requiring them to follow the common airline booking sequence.
This solution addresses shopping cart abandonment by keeping sessions open for months, if needed.
Customers can simply pick up where they left off whenever they like.
The feature is being introduced on the airline’s website at m.finnair.com. It is being rolled out progressively in markets around the world.
Finnair has said it will ultimately introduce the feature across devices.
A Finnair customer could, in principle, start the booking flow on the laptop at home, pick up the shopping cart process on a smartphone on the road, then close the booking on their tablet any time the like, even weeks later.
Manuel Midon, head of airlines in Northern & Western EU for Amadeus Airlines says the company developed the capability in response to airlines wanting to compete with leading consumer e-commerce sites.
“It gives airlines the ownership to design and build the booking flow that they want, in line with the digital retailing experience expected by today’s travellers.”
Finnair and Amadeus worked together to adapt the solution to the airline’s needs throughout the development process.
Related reading:
Finnair pilots NDC tech with Skyscanner