The winning game

In May, airBaltic received the very significant AI Innovator Award 2024 sponsored by PROS, a United States-based industry leader in providing marketing, pricing, and selling tools. Every day, more than 400 million prices and 1.7 billion forecasts are driven by PROS products across 30 industries around the world.

The award recognises companies that leverage AI to drive exceptional outcomes, optimise operations, and foster collaboration. airBaltic received the award in recognition of the PROS AI-powered Dynamic Ancillary Pricing (DAP) solution that it uses to automate and optimise the pricing for seat assignment on its website.

One of the people from airBaltic’s team who worked for over six months to implement this solution was Iuliia Granja Velasco, a project manager in the airline’s E-Commerce Department who made sure all of airBaltic’s requirements were taken into account.

This award sure is a huge recognition for airBaltic and its innovative spirit. Can you tell us more about the DAP solution?

Indeed, we’re very pleased that all the work we invested has paid off so well and that PROS, our long-term partner, is also proud of what we’ve achieved together.

For two years now, I’ve been in charge of managing the ancillaries pages at airbaltic.com as well as implementing the new pricing engine together with PROS. The idea about DAP, to implement an AI engine to improve our seat pricing strategy, came about with the aim to cut maintenance costs as well as to offer our passengers more personalised pricing based on overall demand, chosen routes, flight times, seat characteristics, and other factors. We were increasingly considering the implementation of AI, and we’re happy that it turned out to be a successful project, automating our pricing system and enhancing our overall efficiency in that particular ancillary segment.

The engine behind DAP works based on AI algorithms. The project started with defining the segmentation parameters based on which the AI would determine pricing. Having fed this data into the AI, we gave it some time to learn the purchasing behaviour of our customers in real time. We don’t leave the AI to operate on its own (laughs); it still works within the boundaries that we set according to our requirements.

The AI then studied all of the data until it finally could prepare a balanced offer to our passenger. Today, the AI solution provides a price that is closely tailored to what the customer is willing to pay for the seat. To some it may seem high, or maybe even low in some cases, but it’s still a very good and balanced price, considering the particular route, day, flight time, seat type, and overall demand for the particular seat.

Now that it’s up and running, how does DAP make life easier in the E-Commerce Department?

The team is pretty happy because now they have less work to do manually on the Excel sheets (laughs), which means they can now focus on other, more strategic tasks. The work is now much easier, because AI is managing it all. Most importantly, it offers more precise pricing that takes into consideration all the parameters and conditions. We’re now thinking about how to utilise AI more and where else we can implement it to enjoy its advantages.

How has this award for airBaltic resonated with the industry?

PROS is a huge company based in the United States, with headquarters in Houston, Texas, and we’re proud to have this collaboration and that we’ve achieved good results.

We received the award during the PROS Outperform 2024 conference in Orlando, Florida, in the the United States. A lot of representatives from other airlines also attended the conference, and they were very interested in our experience. Everyone’s looking for something innovative and new to attract more customers and increase efficiency.

Our colleagues from other airlines were literally hunting us down, eager to talk and hear about our experience. They’re also thinking about how to embrace AI and how to use it to their advantage, because not only is it such a hot topic right now, but it can also be a real help.

Is this project the only thing the E-Commerce team does?

Besides working closely with the Revenue Management division, our team is primarily in charge of airBaltic’s website in terms of booking engine support, ticket sales, and merchandising of all ancillary products and services. We ensure that this process is smooth for our customers and meets all of their needs as well as ours. Revenue Management is in charge of the pricing strategy as such, while we’re responsible for the whole technical part so that all the prices actually appear on the site. We also ensure that all the marketing campaigns run smoothly on our website. That requires close collaboration with the marketing team as well. We collaborate with various departments within airBaltic to ensure smooth sales of our tickets and other products.

What’s your own background?

In Ukraine, where I come from, I worked in the field of IT, but not in aviation; IT project management is my background. I earned a master’s degree in linguistics from Kyiv National Linguistic University, but after a while, I decided to pursue a career in aviation and began studying aviation management in Poland, where I graduated from the University of Information Technology and Management.

How did you find airBaltic?

It was actually the other way around (laughs)! We in fact had two encounters.

Long before I joined the company, I was working on a project for my university studies, and when considering which airline I could do this project about, I chose airBaltic. Later, thinking about my future career, I applied for a position at airBaltic that was vacant at the time.

I applied for that job in 2020, during the pandemic. I remember I had three rounds of interviews, but I was rejected at the very end. However, airBaltic’s HR team contacted me with an offer a couple of years later, when this position opened up again. Although I already had a job offer from a Polish company and was thinking about moving to Poland, I made the decision to move to Riga instead.

You said the airline looked quite attractive from the outside, but what did you find when you arrived and started working here?

It met all my expectations in terms of environment and the team itself, as the people who work here are extremely professional, friendly, helpful, and collaborative. I do enjoy the company culture, the transparency in all the processes, and being able to openly share ideas and have them heard and implemented.

Where do you find joy in your job?

Here I have to talk about AI again – it’s super interesting and something totally new! There’s not that much practical information about it yet, so for me it’s really interesting to observe how it works.

I also enjoy improving the website, adding something new to enhance our customers’ experience so they can clearly understand what they’re getting and for what price and then make a decision quickly. What I liked about airBaltic’s website already some time ago, when I first explored it, was how it looked. It was clean and clear, not overloaded with information, and now that I’ve started working here, I can see that this trend is still being pursued. But of course, being insiders, we always notice the imperfections, the small details that can be changed or improved, even if they’re not obvious to customers (laughs). But overall, it’s nice and I’d like it to continue that way.

What makes your own journey as a passenger comfortable?

Smooth payment is important. In that regard, we implemented Apple Pay and Google Pay already a couple of years ago to make the experience for our customers even easier. To be honest, if there’s no Apple Pay or Google Pay option on a platform, such as a shopping platform I’m visiting, I just leave it; there’s no time anymore to enter card data. I really do enjoy this quick payment option.

My actual flight experience really depends on how long the flight is. If it’s three or four hours or more, I do consider buying a seat with extra leg space or a window seat. I also make use of the opportunity to order a meal on board. Having a flight be on schedule is also something I look forward to. And a good mood!