For the everyday traveler, the company name Navitaire may not sound familiar. But for many airlines, especially low-cost and hybrid carriers, Navitaire, an Amadeus company, provides key products and services that have helped modernize operations, with a strong focus on the cloud and AI. When travelers book a fare on a Low-Cost Carrier(LCC), there’s likely a Navitaire program at work behind the scenes, making that process as quick and efficient as possible.
Navitaire hosted its annual Customer Conference October 14-16 in Las Vegas, and for the first time in the event’s 20-plus-year history, media were invited to participate. The conference provided attendees (primarily airline customers) with the opportunity to learn about the latest innovations in AI and cloud-based technology, and how they benefit airlines and passengers.
Travel Goes Ticketless: A Brief History
Today, Navitaire offers two key products targeted primarily toward low-cost and hybrid carriers: New Skies (the current generation reservation system) and Stratos (the next generation ‘modern retail’ platform), but the company put its name on the map in 1994 with the introduction of Open Skies – the world’s first web-based, ticketless reservation system. Within ten years, more than 65 airlines had adopted Open Skies, and in turn processed more than 1 billion reservations. In 2005, Open Skies was replaced by New Skies.
Low-cost carriers were among the first to adopt ‘ticketless’ technology, and the majority of the low-cost carriers today operate on Navitaire solutions. Kyle Stromberg is Navitaire’s Chief Technology Officer. He noted that low-cost carriers tend to be the ‘disruptors’ and ‘innovators’ in the airline industry, and they’re also quite adaptable and nimble, which is why platforms like New Skies and Stratos work well for them.
“We’ve provided a very open platform for airlines to build on, and I think that’s something that’s very important to the low-cost and hybrid carriers – to have that flexibility to be able to innovate and disrupt,” Stromberg said.
From New Skies To Stratos: An Evolution
New Skies is Navitaire’s current-generation reservation system – the system people use to book and manage flights, and to pay for items like seats and baggage. Stratos represents the next generation – what the industry terms ‘modern retailing.’ Stromberg likens Stratos to the Amazon experience, allowing users to add flights and add-ons to a digital ‘shopping cart.’
“Today when you book a fare, you have to make your decisions within a brief window of time – you search for your flight, have to decide if you want to pay for a meal, for extra baggage, or if that destination is even where you want to go,” Stromberg said.
“With Stratos, you can put all those things in a cart, and come back to it later or share it with friends and family; the cart could also ‘reach out’ to you and let you know there’s a deal going on,” he added. In addition to making the booking process easier for travelers, the ‘cart’ concept also enables airlines to recover lost revenue through re-engagement. Navitaire is working with a few select customers on implementing Stratos, and anticipates having some of the first use cases live early next year.
Post-Booking Revenue Optimization: What Does It Mean?
Earlier this year, Navitaire announced a new partnership with Volantio, a technology company focused on ‘post-booking revenue optimization.’ And while the word ‘revenue’ may insinuate this is solely beneficial to airlines, the company’s Re-Commerce Platform can be largely beneficial to travelers as well – especially those with flexible itineraries. Volantio uses AI to predict high-demand, profitable flights, then incentivizes flexible travelers to switch to lower-demand options. This allows airlines to resell the high-demand fares, and because of the incentives, flexible travelers come out ahead as well.
For instance, when a flight is overbooked, the airline needs to incentivize a select number of passengers to switch flights. The same thing often happens when an airline needs to switch to a smaller aircraft for an already-full flight. And then there are ‘high-value’ flights. A flight may be in high demand one day, but not so much the next. In those instances, it’s ideal to be able to switch flexible passengers to the lower-demand option. In the past, those types of rebookings would have been handled either in advance by call centers or in real time by gate agents.
“Using our tool, they can find that flexibility automatically,” said Azim Barodawala, CEO of Volantio. “Basically, our platform transforms passenger flexibility into some kind of benefit for them and for the airline, and being able to find that flexibility is incredibly valuable,” he added.
Giovanni Simone, Navitaire’s Head of Commercial Account Management for Europe, Middle East and Africa, emphasized the importance of partnering with other companies like Volantio. “Navitaire was born as sort of a ‘disruptor’ in the airline industry, by creating a ‘ticketless’ platform,” he said.
And by eliminating the ticket, Navitaire eliminated a lot of complexity typically associated with booking travel. “The core of the platform was offering point-to-point flights in a digital environment, and that’s why we believe the natural evolution of that model is partnering with companies like Volantio to evolve it and bring it to the future,” he added.
There’s a sustainability element as well. “If you’re able to accommodate more passengers without flying more airplanes, you’re actually reducing a very critical metric for carriers: net carbon emissions per passenger flown,” Barodawala said. In fact, that’s the main reason Alaska Star Ventures, 
Alaska Airlines’ venture capital arm, invested in Volantio in 2022. “We’re able to actually drive profit for carriers while also reducing net carbon emissions per passenger flown,” he explained.
Behind-The-Scenes: Streamlining Airport Operations
Cloud-based technology and AI are also at work in and around airports. Navitaire’s parent company, Amadeus, has partnered with Microsoft on the Virtual Airport Operations Center (APOC). Utilizing Microsoft Teams, the APOC connects key players, helping to make day-to-day airport operations more efficient. Cyril Tetaz is Executive Vice President of Airline Solutions at Amadeus, as well as the incoming CEO at Navitaire. “It’s about empowering airports to manage disruptions or complex operations events by connecting silos,” Tetaz said. Additionally, Microsoft Azure Machine Learning can run simulations to help airport staff fine-tune certain plans.
Another tool Amadeus and Microsoft have partnered on is GARV, an AI agent ‘operations advisor’ that empowers users to more easily make decisions based on complex data. GARV can help manage tasks relating to an airport’s operations control center, maintenance, gate operations, and other areas. “When you look at the APOC itself, it’s fantastic, and then they added the agent on top of that, which can handle a lot of the tasks as well,” said Julie Shainock, Microsoft’s Global Managing Director for Travel, Transport and Logistics.
Shainock likens agentic AI to a ‘digital colleague’ that can help users manage complexities and data. “When you look at consumer-facing industries, that’s where you really start to see AI, and data is a key component of it,” she said. “It’s going to help deliver with the customer at the center – hyperpersonalization.”
Low-Cost Carriers: Adapting To An Ever-Changing Landscape
Today, LCC’s have been notably struggling, particularly because mainline carriers have learned how to compete with them. In the early 2000s, the LCC business model seemed unbeatable. But mainline carriers swooped in with their own version of the super-cheap fare: basic economy.
Now, premium fares are becoming more popular. So, low-cost and hybrid carriers are having to adapt to a new standard. For example, JetBlue Airwayshas its Mint premium class, and Frontier Airlines is retrofitting the first two rows of its aircraft with first class seats.
Though the future for low-cost carriers has seemed uncertain at times, it’s unlikely that they’ll go away completely. “When a low-cost carrier goes through a bankruptcy or gets pushed out of the market, a lot of times it is another low-cost carrier that’s taking that market,” said Stromberg. In August 2025, Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy for the second time in a year. In September, JetBlue announced nine new routes out of Fort Lauderdale, eight of which compete directly with Spirit.
“It’s about adaptability,” Stromberg said. “And low-cost carriers tend to adapt to market conditions – to be competitive.”
Looking Ahead: The Future Is Bright In The Cloud
Cloud-based technology and AI have certainly revolutionized the travel industry and will continue to do so for decades to come. From paper boarding passes to ticketless itineraries, and now to more of a modern retailing experience, the way travelers book travel and board flights has come a long way over the last 30-some years. Disruptions are becoming increasingly predictable and avoidable, too. Instead of relying on call centers to fix problems, predictive AI can help avoid them altogether.
For Stromberg, the ever-evolving nature of the travel industry is what excites him most about the future. “We know that some of the most stressful times can be around disruptions, so we’re looking at how we can better manage that with the solutions that we provide – we want to help our customers evolve,” he added.
“A lot of travelers don’t know how many people, companies, providers and processes are working behind-the-scenes,” said Simone. “Flying has become something that people do very easily. You go online, you book a flight and you go. But behind that simple thing, there are millions of people working on the technology, the planes, the airports. It’s humongous.”
