The co-founder, Verteil Technologies, Satheesh Satchit, has harped on the New Distribution Capability (NDC) solutions, saying it has the potential to reduce the cost of distribution for airlines by almost one-tenth.

Satchit stated this during a stakeholders’ engagement meeting in Lagos, highlighting the cost of purchasing fuel and providing adequate welfare for staff as the largest expenditure for airline operators.

“So, the technology that Verteil provides helps airlines to achieve two goals. One, airlines can distribute their products and services to travel sellers across the globe through Verteil at a much lower cost.

“That means the cost of distribution for airlines comes down by almost one-tenth or more than that and it also allows them to move into a more retailing world where they can sell a lot more products and services,” he said.

He emphasised the firm’s objective aimed at providing excellence in airline retailing, offering insights for airlines to explore more opportunities than selling seats for air travellers.

“So, today they just sell commodities. Commodity means seat. They are only able to sell seats

“Airlines will be able to sell a lot of things like car rentals, hotels, meals, Wi-Fi vouchers, launch access. A person traveling on a flight can be sold a hundred different things. They are called ancillaries.

“Ancillaries can be air-related or non-air-related. Anything which makes sense to a traveler, they can sell. They can bundle it with a fare,” he added.

He dropped the hint of boarding one of the domestic airlines, Air Peace, on their technological platform, describing the worth of the country’s market as big.

“So, Nigeria is a very big market for us. A lot of customers, a lot of opportunities. So, it is a really good market and we are here to stay. We are looking at working with Air Peace,” he said.

He expressed optimism of a stable economy to improve the ease of business in the air-travelling industry.