ATPCO has developed a new data format designed to help
travelers more easily to see and compare airlines' pandemic-related protocols
when flight shopping.
The new data format tweaks the Universal Product Attributes
content that is part of Routehappy's product. UPAs were created largely to give
shopping travelers more details about flights and products they were
buying—images of seats or cabins, for example—and after the onset of the
pandemic, ATPCO developed "Reassurance
UPAs," which detailed information such as airlines' policies on cabin
cleaning, food service and health screenings.
Now, ATPCO is offering "Structured UPAs," which
puts that data for more than 300 airlines in a more standardized formats
consisting of an icon, headline and description. They cover five categories:
cleaning procedures, including products used and frequency; facial covering
requirements; pre-flight temperature checks; seat-blocking policies, such as
keeping middle seats vacant; and capacity limits.
ATPCO developed the format based on feedback from its
travel-selling partners.
"Visuals are still important, as they enable customers
to better understand at the time of booking the airline experience they will
receive," according to ATPCO chief commercial officer Jonathan Savitch.
"But after many hours of consultation with thought-leading airlines and
channels, we realized they need more options, including the ability to filter
and sort based on key health information."
Corporate travel platform Serko and Expedia will be the
first channels to integrate the data format. An ATPCO spokesperson told BTN that
includes Expedia's corporate travel channel Egencia.
Expedia will use the structured data "to tailor,
localize and test messaging to help travelers make more informed
decisions," according to Expedia transportation SVP Michael Gulmann. Serko
CEO Darrin Grafton said the data helps in "reducing the complexity of
aggregating safety information across hundreds of suppliers in multiple
regions."
ATPCO eventually plans to expand the Structured UPAs format
to cover topics outside of pandemic policies and procedures. In the meantime,
the reassurance data already has proven effective in driving bookings,
according to Savitch. One channel that has been using the Reassurance UPAs
noted that conversions improved 4 percent after adding the content, he said.