Star Alliance selects preferred vendors for sales audit and revenue protection services
Frankfurt, GERMANY – Star Alliance has selected two preferred vendors to perform audit and revenue protection services for its member airlines. The appointment of both WNS and Zero Octa is the outcome of a central selection process often undertaken by Star Alliance on behalf of its member carriers. As a result, participating member carriers can now contract their individual requirements from two of the industry’s leading providers, at favourable conditions and also expand the scope of the work.
Both vendors will offer a variety of audit services to protect carriers’ revenue. Even though pricing and ticketing is today largely an automated process, a certain number of tickets are still issued incorrectly. Ticketing errors include (but are not limited to) issuing with the wrong fare, using an incorrect fare basis or a class that does not match the fare paid as well as not collecting change and rebooking fees. In these cases it is standard practice for airlines to recover the lost revenue from the issuing agent. Industry-wide, it is estimated that airlines can lose between three and four percent of their potential revenue from these kinds of errors .
“In the case of Zero Octa, we are very pleased that we can continue and build on the cooperation which began back in 2005. All participating member carriers have managed to increase the percentage of recovered revenue and they look forward to a continued success relationship with Zero Octa,” said Christopher Korenke, VP Commercial, Star Alliance.
Speaking on the occasion, Peter O’Sullivan – Head of Business at Zero Octa, said: “We are delighted to be continuing our long association with Star Alliance. This new contract reaffirms our standing in the market today. Quality, speed, accuracy and diligent customer service have been the cornerstones of our business – and we are sure that Star Alliance member airlines will continue to benefit from our services.”
On the appointment of a second vendor WNS Christopher Korenke said: “Star Alliance has significantly grown in terms of member carriers since 2005. Coupled with the need to expand the geographic scope of revenue protection, we decided to select WNS as a second vendor, thereby better covering the needs of our member carriers.”
“This engagement with Star Alliance is testimony to WNS's reputation as a provider of business processes in the travel and leisure industry for over a decade now. Our Verifare platform is modular and can provide comprehensive auditing of all tickets sold world-wide for an airline. With our qualified and experienced talent pool and strong focus on operational excellence, we will support Star Alliance and its member carriers to increase their process efficiencies, save on costs and enhance recoveries,” said Keshav R. Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS Global Services. “WNS is fully committed towards making this a long-term and successful relationship,” he added.
WNS delivers a complete range of business processes to support the travel and leisure industry, including sales, contact centre operations and shared services. It offers end-to-end delivery of over 140 business processes, supported by 6000+ associates.
As part of the entire process, Star Alliance has also created a Sales Audit Task Force as a best practice exchange between the carriers.