The airline industry is facing an epochal change. With the IATA-driven transition to airline retailing systems such as NDC (New Distribution Capability) and ONE Order, airlines are saying goodbye to the rigid, PNR-based processes of the past.
They are entering a dynamic, customer-oriented world of "Offers and Orders", which promises personalized offers, new revenue streams and a significantly improved customer experience. But this path is technologically challenging and requires an equally revolutionary approach to software quality assurance.
It is therefore crucial for airline decision-makers to understand the new critical test points and to choose the right partners to safeguard them. As TestSolutions GmbH, we are Europe's leading provider of software testing in aviation and will show you where the decisive starting points for a successful digital transformation in the aviation sector lie. Because quality is never a coincidence.
The traditional IT landscape of airlines, characterized by Passenger Service Systems (PSS) and Global Distribution Systems (GDS), was based on the processing of largely static data sets. Airline Retailing breaks with this logic. The result is a highly modular ecosystem in which offers are aggregated in real time from a wide variety of sources, dynamically priced and managed as a single "order" over their entire lifecycle. This change requires new IT architectures and transition concepts, all of which entail specific challenges for software quality assurance.
|
Architecture concept |
description |
Implications for quality assurance |
|---|---|---|
|
Translation API |
A "translation layer" that makes modern order structures understandable for existing back-office processes (e.g. accounting). |
Comprehensive testing of the correct "translation" in both directions to avoid data inconsistencies and synchronization errors. |
|
Encapsulation / "On top" |
Existing PSS functions are "encapsulated" and new workflows are built on top to ensure business continuity. |
Ensuring seamless interaction between old and new system parts, especially when transferring and processing data. |
|
Dual systems / hybrid operation |
PSS and Offer/Order platforms are operated in parallel, which can lead to redundancies. |
Strict validation of data consistency across both systems to prevent deviations and the associated additional costs. |
|
Modularity & interoperability |
Systems communicate vendor-independently via open standards such as IATA NDC and ONE Order. |
End-to-end testing across system and company boundaries to ensure interoperability and compliance with standards. |
The complexity of airline retailing requires a shift in testing focus to new, business-critical functional areas. Insufficient testing in these areas can lead not only to lost revenue but also to a significant loss of reputation.
Offer Construction & Dynamic Pricing Testing: At the heart of the new model is the ability to create personalized offers from flights, ancillaries and partner content in real time and to price these dynamically. Software quality assurance must ensure that the underlying algorithms work correctly, that prices comply with business rules and that performance remains stable even with extremely high request rates (look-to-book ratios of up to 20,000:1 are not uncommon).Testing dynamic pricing is crucial to ensuring profitability and competitiveness.
Order Lifecycle Management & Order Lifecycle Testing: In contrast to the rigid PNR construct, an "order" goes through a complex lifecycle from creation to payment, changes, cancelations and service provision. Each individual status transition must be tested seamlessly in order to guarantee the integrity of the "single source of truth" - the order - at all times. Order lifecycle testing is essential here to ensure error-free processes and a consistent customer experience.
Real-time data flows & service consumption tracking: The new systems rely on real-time data flows, whether for revenue management, analytics or operational control. Software quality assurance must check the latency and correctness of these data flows. In addition, it must be verified in real time whether a booked service (e.g. lounge access, Wi-Fi on board) has actually been provided and booked correctly in the system. This is crucial for correct billing and optimizing the customer experience.
The biggest challenge in the transformation lies at the interfaces between the old and the new world. These "breaking points" are particularly prone to errors and require the utmost attention in software quality assurance.
Retrofitting as an operational pain point: The backward compatibility of modern order data in legacy systems is not a simple mapping, but a highly complex synchronization between two opposing logics. Since airlines have to mirror their orders in outdated "e-paper" structures (ET/EMD) in order not to jeopardize financial continuity, this is where the highest quality risk of the transformation arises. Specialized regression testing is essential to ensure that order status updates - such as partial cancellations or rebookings - are transferred to the rigid legacy documents without loss. Only continuous validation of both data worlds prevents financial discrepancies and incorrect reports in sales accounting.
Bid price cascading & strategic hedging via SRSIA: In classic partner scenarios (interline/code share), price specifications had to be cascaded across complex system boundaries. Rounding differences or latencies in data transfer often led to non-transparent price losses and jeopardized margins. The new SRSIA framework (Standard Retailer and Supplier Interline Agreement) [3] replaces these sources of error with a direct synchronization of offers and orders between retailer and supplier. Quality assurance must validate the seamless comparison of conditions in order to guarantee precise control of the partner relationship.
Settlement with orders: The replacement of classic settlement systems such as BSP/ARC with direct, order-based settlement triggers between the seller and airline promises efficiency, but also harbors the risk of incorrect bookings in the event of insufficient system coordination. Precise validation of the trigger logic is essential here.
The following matrix shows the critical test points at which the technological basis of airline IT meets the new requirements of retailing. It illustrates three central aspects of quality assurance:
|
Test object |
Critical test point (test variable) |
Expected result (target state) |
|---|---|---|
|
Translation API |
Conversion of order status messages into legacy records (e.g. PNR updates). |
Error-free synchronization between modern order DB and back-office legacy systems. |
|
SRSIA Interline Sync |
Consistency of order data between retailer and supplier airline. |
Real-time synchronization of the delivery status (status 'Delivered') across airline borders. |
|
Dynamic Offer Engine |
Correct application of offer rules and product catalog conditions. |
Generation of a valid, time-limited offer including correct tax calculation without fare-filing. |
|
Order Lifecycle |
Integrity of the single source of truth for complex changes (voluntary/involuntary changes). |
Automatic notification and consistent status update of all order components. |
|
Settlement Trigger |
Correctness of the payment trigger for revenue accounting transfer. |
Settlement trigger based on order events instead of manual coupon processing. |
|
Service Consumption |
Real-time feedback of DCS events (boarding/lounge) into the order. |
Immediate availability of consumption status for analytics and revenue recognition. |
This scenario along the test matrix simulates the flow of a booking, taking into account backwards compatibility and the new settlement logic.
The changeover to airline retailing is a far-reaching technological reorientation. As the process complexity increases due to the parallel management of legacy and offer/order structures, methodical quality assurance of the software and the underlying business processes is necessary.
TestSolutions GmbH has been supporting airlines in the quality assurance of their software and systems since 2007. We have been involved in the operational testing of technological developments from the digitalization of paper-based processes to the current switch to API-based retail structures.
Based on this experience, we provide support in securing hybrid system landscapes:
By checking the functional correctness at the technical breaking points, we help to ensure that system stability is maintained during the transformation and that the targeted efficiency gains of the IATA vision can be realized.
Do not compromise on quality assurance.
Contact us.