Airfare Clearinghouse Promotes Routehappy Execs to Fit New Data Strategy
Photo Credit: ATPCO CEO Rolf Purzer (left) with Robert Albert, the new executive vice president of retailing and the founder and former CEO of Routehappy. The fare-filing database ATPCO continues to make changes, adopting modern sales and technology needs for the airline industry. ATPCO
Skift Take
Fare-filing clearinghouse ATPCO has announced changes in its c-suite. So we checked in to see how it's progressing on its modernization effort. The challenges are daunting.
Airlines are seeking to modernize their airfare clearinghouse, ATPCO, formerly known as the Airline Tariff Publishing Company. Leadership changes announced Thursday underscored the airline drive.
For decades, number-crunchers at airlines worldwide have used ATPCO as a tool for tracking price changes by competitors. But changing times had revealed its weaknesses.
"The airline industry is moving slowly toward where price points might be created dynamically at the point of sale without any filed fares," said the clearinghouse's CEO Rolf Purzer. "It's a slow change, and we're adjusting to the change."
The non-profit firm, owned by 16 airlines, has been broadening its services. It now tries to help airlines present to shoppers images of premium cabins and other products in standardized formats that all online sellers can use. It is also working on new pricing and audit capabilities. The moves are bringing it into competition with private technology companies. To compete, airlines a
