Based on communications protocols devised more than 30 years ago, Passenger Service Systems (PSS) have long supported the airline industry, from ticket reservations to ancillary sales. These legacy systems were designed for an era when human travel agents were the norm. But with technology evolving rapidly and customer expectations rising, the limited extensibility of PSS and the information scattered across multiple records now make servicing complex and genuine personalisation nearly impossible.
Today, these capabilities sit at the heart of a seamless passenger experience, pushing airlines to modernise their systems and meet new standards of efficiency and relevance. While PSS will remain the operational backbone for the foreseeable future, the Offers & Orders (O&O) model has emerged as the industry’s response, allowing airlines to retail directly to third parties, simplify distribution, and create a unified model where every interaction begins with a tailored offer and every purchase lives within a single, flexible order.
From Legacy Control to Retail Freedom: A Unified Experience
O&O, or Offer, Order, Settle, Delivery (OOSD), redefines how airlines manage the full traveler journey, and it’s part of a broader shift toward Modern Airline Retailing (MAR).
The O&O model unlocks hyper-personalisation, new retail opportunities, and a customer experience as seamless as modern e-commerce. Under the traditional model, control over offers lies not with airlines but with global distribution systems (GDSs), where visibility into airline-specific services is limited. O&O fundamentally redefines this model. Airlines can dynamically bundle flights, seats, ancillaries, and third-party offerings such as hotels, ground transport, or car rentals, using data from passenger interactions and operational data from connected partners’ systems.
This advancement in airline retailing creates a cascading effect that benefits the entire ecosystem. As a unified framework across every flight, O&O enables dynamic retailing, operational efficiency, and scalable integration across shopping, ordering, and payment.
The simplified system significantly streamlines the passenger experience. Each customer’s history, preferences, and conversations across multiple channels are documented and accessible, paving the way for loyalty strategies that build deeper, longer-term connections. Agentic AI further strengthens this: it will enable airlines to dynamically generate the right offers, autonomously service orders, optimize revenue across channels, and free human teams from rigid, rule-based tasks, transforming airline retailing into an adaptive, continuous loop of learning and improvement.
Unlocking Growth Ahead of the Curve
Leading airlines pioneering O&O are already demonstrating the tangible rewards of transformation. Their early adoption has unlocked new streams of ancillary revenue, reduced complexity, and created seamless customer journeys.
Reported gains indicate a measurable financial uplift of up to around $6 per passenger in current deployments, with value continuing to rise as retail and servicing capabilities mature. We’ve seen returns like this first-hand in our work with major carriers around the world.
Furthermore, these carriers are setting the standard for personalized travel retailing, showing how a modern, customer-centric approach can both strengthen loyalty and open new opportunities for growth.
The Next Era of Airline Retail
The industry stands at a critical inflection point: the shift towards Offers & Orders is no longer about vision, it’s about execution and timing. With the right partners, airlines can evolve incrementally, with minimal disruption, while laying the groundwork for AI-driven innovation and interconnected teams focused on enhancing the passenger experience.
Airlines that act now can unlock revenue early in the transformation, making progress financially self-sustaining while building momentum for larger change. They will also benefit from long-term loyalty and the agility to compete in a retail-driven marketplace, rather than a legacy systems-bound environment. Those who hesitate risk remaining tethered to outdated limitations, as leaders set the standard and capture the rewards of reduced costs and increased revenue through modern technology.
At Globant’s Airlines AI Studio, we help carriers design and implement tailored roadmaps for the adoption of Offers & Orders, combining deep industry knowledge with cutting-edge AI and digital expertise. From strategy to execution, we partner with airlines to modernize at their own pace, while preparing for the connected, data-driven future of air travel.
Discover how Globant’s Airlines AI Studio can help you reimagine the passenger journey.
