IBS Software to explore more biz opportunities in India's airline industry

According to Mathews, the key trends in the industry are best-in-class technology systems, travel commerce and supercharged customer relationships

IBS Software, a leading SaaS solutions provider to the global travel industry, will look at more business opportunities in the airlines industry as well as the loyalty programmes segment in India, which is also a "price sensitive market", according to a top company official.

Sounding optimistic about the prospects for the global travel industry, the company's Founder and Executive Chairman V K Mathews said the Indian market has huge growth potential.

The Singapore-headquartered Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions provider has around 5,000 staff and has about 200 clients spread across aviation, travel and cruise, hospitality, and energy and resource segments.

Emirates, British Airways, China Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Virgin Atlantic, Hyatt, Hilton, Chevron, ADNOC and Royal Caribbean International are among its clients, as per the company's website.

In India, IBS is implementing software solutions for air cargo operations, and also the staff travel management for Air India.

In a recent interview with PTI in Kochi, Mathews said that apart from Air India, the company will look at opportunities to work with IndiGo and Akasa Air as well and highlighted that it has the broadest portfolio of products for the aviation and travel business.

On whether the company finds potential in the area of loyalty programmes in India, Mathews said, "absolutely, that is one area that we will be looking at". India is one of the world's fastest growing civil aviation markets and the domestic airlines are expanding their fleet as well as network to meet the rising demand.

Responding to a query on positioning of IBS Software's products, he said its products are relatively expensive and "we have to find the right marriage".

Elaborating further, he noted that in India, which is a very price-sensitive market, IT is seen as a cost and not as a value yet but the trend is changing. As the economy progresses, the differentiation will come from value. Now, differentiation is coming from cost, he added.

While acknowledging that India and China are the two countries where it has not been successful unlike other markets, Mathews mentioned that the Indian market has huge growth potential and will continue to grow for the next 20 years.

According to him, the key trends in the industry are best-in-class technology systems, travel commerce and supercharged customer relationships.

"In airline retailing, a lot of things can be from the airport but we provide retailing capabilities to airlines... for airports, we have solutions from a commercial aviation point of view. Departure controls, check in, cargo management, all of those things we do," Mathews said.