Finnair transforms its booking experience with Amadeus’ newest digital retailing API
The new technology brings flexibility to Finnair’s online retailing experience, allowing booking flows to be adapted to what works best for the traveller
Finnair is partnering with Amadeus to make travel bookings easier and more flexible for customers across all of its online platforms. The Finnair website and the Finnair mobile app account for one quarter of the company’s sales, forming the single most important sales channel for the airline.
“We want to make the shopping experience more intuitive and enjoyable for our customers,” says Jaron Millner, Vice President of Direct Business at Finnair. “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.”
Amadeus’ innovative REST/JSON[1] Digital API empowers Finnair with enhanced retailing capabilities to deliver booking experiences according to customer requirements, without the need to follow the common airline booking sequence. Shopping carts and sessions will now remain open for several months, meaning that travellers can start shopping for flights at m.finnair.com, close their session anytime, and pick up where they left off to finish their booking. In the future, this capability will also enable Finnair customers to access their shopping cart from different devices; for example, one can start a booking on a smartphone, and finish it on another device a few days or several weeks later.
“This API was developed in direct response to airline needs,” says Manuel Midon, Head of Airlines in Northern & Western EU for Amadeus Airlines. “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 side by side using an Agile approach, which enabled a fast delivery of the new ecommerce solution, as the teams were able to adapt the solution during the development process.
The Amadeus Digital API powers the retailing experience of Finnair’s mobile site m.finnair.com. The interface is being rolled out progressively to Finnair travellers all over the world on a market by market basis.
About Finnair
Finnair flies between Asia, Europe and North America with an emphasis on fast connections via Helsinki, carrying more than ten million passengers annually. In 2017, Finnair's extensive network connects 19 cities in Asia and 7 cities in North America with over 100 destinations in Europe. The airline, a pioneer in sustainable flying, was the first European airline to fly the next-generation, eco-smart Airbus A350 XWB aircraft and it is the first airline listed in the Leadership Index of the worldwide Carbon Disclosure Project. The only Nordic carrier with a 4-star Skytrax ranking, Finnair has also won the World Airline Award for Best Airline Northern Europe for the past eight years running. Finnair is a member of oneworld, the alliance of the world's leading airlines committed to providing the highest level of service and convenience to frequent international travellers.
About Amadeus IT Group
Amadeus is a leading provider of advanced technology solutions for the global travel industry. Customer groups include travel providers (e.g. airlines, hotels, rail and ferry operators, etc.), travel sellers (travel agencies and websites), and travel buyers (corporations and travel management companies).
The Amadeus group employs around 15,000 people worldwide, across central sites in Madrid (corporate headquarters), Nice (development) and Erding (operations), as well as over 70 local Amadeus Commercial Organisations globally and has a presence in more than 190 countries.
The group operates a transaction-based business model.
Amadeus is listed on the Spanish Stock Exchange under the symbol "AMS.MC" and is a component of the IBEX 35 index.
To find out more about Amadeus please visit www.amadeus.com, and www.amadeus.com/blog for more on the travel industry.
[1] Representational State Transfer (REST) coupled with JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) are modern API practices that provide flexible and developer-friendly access to back-end resources, which in this case is the Amadeus e-Retail solution.
Further information:
Finnair Media Desk, +358 9 818 4020, comms(a)finnair.com
www.finnair.com, www.finnairgroup.com
www.twitter.com/Finnair
www.facebook.com/finnair
www.instagram.com/feelfinnair
www.youtube.com/finnair
Images: gallery.finnair.com
Finnair blog: blogs.finnair.com