OAG data, a division of OAG Worldwide, today launched an exciting new initiative which will save the airline industry millions of dollars and ensure passengers get more accurate information about changes in flight details. In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of airlines sharing flights, known as codeshare.
OAG research reveals that:
more than 50% of flight numbers now indicate a codeshare partnership
more than 300 airlines have some sort of codeshare agreement
some airlines have more than 30 separate codeshare partners
As travel agent and airline reservation systems are updated at different times their information is often 'out of synch'. This creates a number of problems. For travellers, details held by the airline selling the ticket such as the departure time and terminal may be different to the actual details held by the operating airline.
OAG statistics indicate that: 1 in 4 codeshare flights contain a data mismatch between the "operating" and "marketing" carrier
32% of all inaccuracies are discrepancies in times
31% are discrepancies in terminal information
Conflicting information occurs in over 15% of total flights
For airlines, the cost of reprocessing reservations made on the basis of "out of sync" information is estimated as running into millions of dollars In addition, there is the impact on customer service caused by passengers receiving inaccurate information.
OAG's new initiative, the Codeshare Audit Service, will address these problems. The service captures any inaccurate or conflicting information and communicates it to the airlines via a detailed report. In a further development to be launched later in the year, OAG will enable automatic alters and corrections to code share changes that will significantly improve the information used by travel agents and airlines. Duncan Alexander, managing director of OAG data, said: "The new service was developed in direct response to concerns raised by the airlines. Our experience and knowledge in airline data management has enabled us to offer a solution that will significantly reduce codeshare-related issues for airlines and their passengers." Karr Cannelin, director schedules information at Finnair, an airline familiar with the difficulties created by codeshare, said: "We are very much looking forward to trying out OAG's new service. Codeshare offers a number of benefits to our customers, but we appreciate that misleading information can be costly in customer service and financial terms. The Codeshare Audit Service will allow us to improve the service we offer and reduce costs." Media enquiries should be directed to:
Fiona Chow/Clair Waldron
Brown Lloyd James
T: 020 7591 9610 / M: 07866 447732
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