Press Release 2005

Star Alliance and Zero Octa sign a preferred supplier agreement
 
Star Alliance, the airline network for Earth™, has chosen Zero Octa as preferred vendor for revenue recovery and protection services. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Zero Octa is a global organisation, providing financial outsourcing services, for airline clients on every continent and has specialised in correcting ticketing errors which result in lost revenue for airlines.

“Zero Octa demonstrated a high degree of industry experience, flexibility and innovation during the selection process”, stated Horst Findeisen, VP Commercial Star Alliance. “Moreover, this framework agreement will allow our member carriers to achieve higher levels of revenue recovery, while at the same time lower their costs”.

“We are very pleased to have been selected by Star Alliance”, commented Adam Smith, Zero Octa Director Travel Services. “The quality, flexibility and sophistication of our systems and services will ensure that Star Alliance member airlines will gain significant benefits from this agreement. The RFP process covered all areas of the Revenue Recovery business and we are delighted that our experience, technical infrastructure and global presence were recognised as superior to the other vendors”.

In the current competitive aviation environment, revenue recovery and protection is increasingly gaining in importance for the airlines. Even though pricing and ticketing is today largely an automated process, a certain number of tickets are still issued incorrectly. Ticketing errors include issuing with the wrong fare, using an incorrect fare basis or in a class that does not match the fare paid. In these cases it is standard practice for airlines to recover the lost revenue from the travel agent. Industry-wide, it is estimated that airlines can lose between three and four percent of their potential revenue from these kinds of errors. In order to minimise these losses, the Star Alliance member carriers have in the past made use of various systems and providers to recover the lost revenue. Now they have the opportunity to use a common service with a proven track record to maximise recovery.

Under the new agreement, all Star Alliance member carriers can contract Zero Octa to perform these tasks. Compared to earlier agreements with either the same or other suppliers, the participating carriers will benefit from a more comprehensive and cost-effective service. Moreover, this contract also allows member carriers to increase the number of documents to be audited as well as add more sales markets in which Zero Octa is to perform revenue recovery and protection checks. The vendor selection process followed Star Alliance’s standard practice for a Request for Proposal (RFP), which saw all the major service providers in this field compete for the business.

Several Star Alliance member carriers have already been using Zero Octa and with this new framework agreement in place, both the scope of service and geographical coverage will be expanded. Ten member carriers - Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Asiana Airlines, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, United, US Airways and VARIG - will be using Zero Octa.

About Zero Octa Group:
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, ZERO OCTA is a global organisation, providing financial outsourcing services, for airline clients on every continent. With offices in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, plus three major wholly owned operational centres – two in Asia and another in Mexico - ZERO OCTA implements financial solutions that identify and collect lost revenue, providing sophisticated management information, to deliver improved cash flows. ZERO OCTA offers a fully managed end-to-end audit solution that works in conjunction with airlines’ existing processes to maximise the efficiency of their systems. The airline retains full management control and our service requires minimal involvement in the implementation and operation of our outsourced solutions.

About Star Alliance:
Star Alliance was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer customers global reach and a smooth travel experience. Star Alliance has been voted Best Airline Alliance by Skytrax in 2003 and 2005. The members are Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Spanair, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways International, United, US Airways and VARIG Brazilian Airlines. South African Airways and SWISS will be integrated during the course of the next 12 months. Overall, the member carriers offer more than 15,000 daily flights to 795 destinations in 139 countries.

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