By Adeniyi Ogunfowoke
Leading travel technology company, Amadeus, has partnered with Jumia for a new flights marketplace on Jumia that will be a step further towards making travel in Africa simple and affordable.
The platform aims to enable travel agents, airlines, and travel websites to bring all flight content online, to offer customers the best available prices for their flights.
Current statistics indicate that 90 percent of the flight market is still offline while only 10 percent exists online. This comes in the wake of increased flight bookings on Jumia’s flights portal, with an explosive growth of 400 percent between July 2017 and July 2018.
“Jumia is continuously investing significantly in developing innovative products for travellers and flight content providers that will enable them to revolutionize their operations and increase revenue,” says Sérgio Figueiredo, Jumia’s Head of Flights. “We understand the market and address its needs. A competitive platform will harmonize all content providers to offer low rates and fees in a bid to meet an increasing traveller demand for unbeatable services at the lowest price,” he adds.
The marketplace will also provide analytical information that flight ticket providers can use to identify new opportunities, routes and help them tailor make packages for their flight target customers.
For Omolara Adagunodo, the Managing Director of Jumia’s Hotel and Flight services in Nigeria, she said: “We have always offered the best available rates to our customers. We have already done these with hotels. Now, we want to do same with flights by becoming the first port of call for travellers looking to book affordable flights. We are, therefore, excited to be working with our partners to bring the flight market online.”
“We are delighted to be working with Jumia to deliver the online choice and marketplace experience that travellers love. Air travel is booming globally, with growth among passengers in Africa projected to outstrip that of every other region by 2035,” commented Francesca Benati, Executive Vice President for Online Travel in Western Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Travel Channels, Amadeus.
Mrs Benati added, “To meet this growing demand, Jumia has selected Amadeus ePower delivered via Web Services, which offers a mobile and tablet-friendly online booking experience. It is designed to help consumers find the best deals faster, thanks to our market-leading shopping and booking technology. I am excited about this winning partnership which will benefit travellers throughout Africa.”
Jumia benchmarks its competitive prices against the largest competitors daily. Between August and the first half of September, 341 routes have been benchmarked with a clear win over its online competitors. Moreover, 48 percent of those benchmarks, Jumia has the Best Available Rate (BAR) for the cheapest and direct flight recommendations.
Jumia considers a route benchmark as BAR, only when its price is cheaper than other competitors with more than 60 percent on the benchmarks hits.
Jumia Flights Marketplace is already the preferred sales channel for many Flight content providers and the preferred buying channel for many travellers on key routes. Currently, Africa’s aviation industry supports 6.8 million jobs and $72.5 billion in economic activity.
