The world of travel is changing. Despite inflation and rising living costs, travelling is still a priority for many. The desire to travel has grown substantially, with digital travel sales to hit $833 billion in 2025, almost doubling from 2020 but, the biggest difference is seen in the preparation for travel. Consumers are having to make better, more informed, price-driven decisions to make their money go further.
Addressing the flight content gap
The ultimate goal for every OTA is to be competitive and offer travellers the best prices from a comprehensive list of carriers. With changing spending trends, being unable to cater to everyone's budget is detrimental to the customer experience and consequently revenue.
The incumbent Global Distribution Systems (GDS) , and even NDCs, don't cover all airlines or routes, including content for those much-favoured low cost carriers (LCC). And, the rates coming through those systems are skewed and at the mercy of those providers. Unfortunately, this leaves OTAs with an important element of their content missing, impacting their ability to compete. Some OTAs may address the content gap, by beginning a complicated and laborious task of connecting missing airlines using individual APIs however, that requires significant investment, substantial tech infrastructure and time that many don’t have.
Using GDS content alongside other providers is expensive. Direct prices from the airlines are luring travellers from OTAs. With a lack of price parity, OTAs are unable to offer competitive rates, affecting repeat customer visits and revenue growth.
How booking APIs bridge the flight content gap
Through UBIOs flight booking API, OTAs can gain coverage for almost any and all airlines and routes. As long as the information exists online, our connectivity technology can retrieve it, even when it comes to hunting down elusive content for low-cost carriers. With no need to have existing access to supplier APIs, there is no development work required from desired carriers, simplifying your route to market.
The UBIO flight booking is one scalable API integration where aggregators can diversify content in a fraction of the development time and with reduced resources needed to build and maintain integrations. OTAs are able to build a more tailored and informed decision-making process, building brand loyalty for the 60% of customers looking for a good personalised experience. With UBIO, OTAs are able to empower travellers with direct rates, just as they are on the airline’s own website.
UBIO’s Smart Actions offers a booking API enabling OTAs to offer price-accurate flight data and deliver an accurate and transparent price throughout the booking process. UBIO helps OTAs price more competitively and improve profit margins.
The future of flight booking
OTAs using our technology have been able to provide customers with more competitive content, enabling them to increase operational efficiency and focus on other revenue-generating activities.
Interested in finding out how UBIO’s flight booking API can help improve user experience, access greater airline content and, differentiate from the competition?
PS: We also work with some of the largest hotel metasearch sites helping them gain access to price accurate rates, direct from the hotel. Our technology helps to plug pricing and availability gaps through a single low cost API. Find out more here.