- Jetstar is a fully-owned low-cost subsidiary of Qantas. It is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, and operates both narrow-body and wide-body aircraft. Apart from its Australian and New Zealand operation, it operates Jetstar Asia in Singapore, Jetstar Pacific in Vietnam and Jetstar Japan in Japan.
- Jetstar selected Dohop as the technology provider behind Jetstar Connect, the airline’s new distribution platform. It launched in 2019 with Tigerair Taiwan as its first partner.
- Jetstar’s vision was clear from the start and it did not include a virtual interline solution. The airline wanted to offer a customer experience as close to traditional interline as possible, however, without the associated costs and complexities.
The challenge
Jetstar has been part of the interline community for many years, but usually only one-way partnerships. Other airlines have been selling Jetstar flights, but Jetstar being a ticketless carrier has not had the capabilities to sell other airlines. In 2017, Jetstar started looking for a solution that would allow them to sell interline itineraries on jetstar.com. During the discussions between Jetstar and Dohop, it quickly became clear that a self-connect solution like Worldwide by easyJet would not be suitable in Jetstar’s case because they operate in a region where international borders remain and countries retain their own visa policy. The requirement for customers to go landside at the connecting airport would make the offering a lot less attractive, so the two parties agreed to launch an MVP that seamlessly aligned the offering of each airline, both in the booking flow and during travel.
“This partnership gives customers access to destinations not served by Tigerair Taiwan, including Gold Coast, Melbourne, and Phnom Penh. We believe this is an emerging trend as more and more travellers want to be the decision-makers while planning their trip.”
The Solution
Technology
Unlike traditional interline, Dohop Interline is based on modern web technologies. Communication standards are based on APIs, and the solution’s architecture uses cloud-based systems. This makes the solution secure, fast, reliable, and cost-effective. And not only does the platform use state-of-art technologies, but it is also future-ready by already following IATA’s NDC and One Order frameworks.
Dohop Interline
Unlike Virtual Interline, Dohop Interline replicates many of the benefits of traditional interline such as product alignment as well as passenger and baggage through check-in. Dohop Interline was therefore a perfect fit for Jetstar’s vision of providing a great customer experience with little costs and complexities.
A customised solution
For Jetstar Connect, Dohop applied many of its industry-leading techniques to generate and display interline itineraries containing multiple low-cost carriers. However, due to the airline’s wish to have a more aligned offering, as well as because self-connect is not suitable for much of Asia-Pacific, the platform was fully customised to Jetstar’s unique needs. Jetstar Connect is available in multiple Asian languages and transacts in multiple Asian currencies while its current booking flow has been fully replicated for the Jetstar Connect solution.
Success factors
A shared vision
From the beginning of their partnership, both Jetstar and Tigerair Taiwan shared the same vision on what their partnership should look like. Despite a handful of overlapping markets, they agreed that an interline collaboration across the rest of their networks would make them both stronger and allow them to compete for traffic, which they alone couldn’t serve. And both Jetstar and Tigerair Taiwan quickly agreed that Dohop Interline was the right solution to power their innovative partnership.
Great passenger experience
Jetstar is offering a great product, so Jetstar Connect couldn’t disappoint. During the booking flow, the user can choose from customized bundles that are aligned across multiple airlines. And during the journey, the passenger will get all boarding passes at the first airport while any luggage will be checked through to the final destination.
Ready for the future
Jetstar has big plans for Jetstar Connect. While it launched with just Tigerair Taiwan as a partner, there are already concrete plans to add more airlines. It will also open up in more markets, more languages will be added, and more distribution partners connected. With Dohop Interline all of this can be done simply and efficiently.
The launch of Jetstar Connect on jetstar.com will provide more options for customers to access Jetstar’s great value fares and an expanded number of low-cost connections. We are looking forward to developing the Jetstar Connect platform further and welcoming new LCC and FSC partnerships in the future.