IBS Software emerges winner in IATA hackathon

IBS Software has emerged winners at the new distribution capacity (NDC) hackathon for corporates held by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Dublin, Ireland, last month.

IBS Software will now have the opportunity to present the award-winning app to over 700 senior stakeholders in the air transport industry at the World Passenger Symposium in Barcelona later in the year.

IATA hackathons (this was the fourth such event) are intended to encourage fresh, innovative solutions to enhance airline retailing through the use of NDC-capable APIs (application programming interface).

The winning teams have the opportunity to present their solutions at industry forums for wider acceptance.

Amadeus and SITA were among the winners in the 2016 edition of the IATA NDC hackathon.

Code named ‘Pho Tra’, the app developed and showcased by IBS Software enables leisure travellers to plan their entire travel itinerary at a click on the Internet image of their dream destination.

The app identifies the destination from the image and then, in real time, plugs into a range of compatible APIs from third parties — hotels, car rentals, airport locations, flight reservations and even carbon foot print calculations — and build a fully automated comprehensive tour package.

For the leisure travellers, the app will help in several ways. It will significantly reduce time to complete the itinerary booking, make the whole process hassle free, offer the lowest possible rates and even give the option of alternate itineraries.

For the service providers – airlines and travel agents – the app will help gain more conversions, as the look-to-book ratio falls.

The Dublin IATA NDC Hackathon comprised of an ‘Ideation Phase’ of one week where different corporates bring in ideas that are reviewed, commented and steered, a 48-hour coding session, followed by a final presentation to the jury.

This is the first event in a series of three, organised by IATA in 2017 to encourage creative thinking in the travel space by taking airline retailing to the next level through NDC.

Bratati Ghosh, Chief Marketing Officer, IBS Software, said that it is perhaps the first time that an Indian IT product company, which operates at the higher end of the value chain, gains world-wide recognition.

“It not only underlines the lateral thinking of our software architects and developers but also of our commitment to look far ahead at the emerging technology needs of the airline industry.”