From Pioneers to Proven Leaders: Scaling Retailing Innovation for the Airline Industry

It was incredibly rewarding to spend time with our airline customers and travel partners in Chicago at Accelya’s latest Airline Retailing Forum.

Across two days of deep discussion, one message rang clear: the time for modern airline retailing is now. Together, we explored the challenges and opportunities ahead from breaking free of legacy technology that no longer serves the industry, to giving airlines full control of their commercial journey. 

At Accelya, we’re not just talking about transformation—we’re making it real. Our commitment and vision to help reshape the industry are grounded in results, and backed by the confidence of a growing community of airline innovators. As we move forward, we remain focused on delivering scalable, intelligent retailing solutions that put airlines in control, enabling them to innovate at their own pace, on their own terms. 

Building the Future of Airline Retailing with FLX ONE

For over a decade, Accelya has worked side by side with airlines to unlock the promise of modern retailing. As early pioneers in NDC, we helped shape its evolution not just as a distribution protocol, but as the foundation for transformational change across the entire airline commercial model. Today, that foundation is stronger than ever. 

We’ve moved beyond simply enabling NDC. We’re helping airlines realize its full potential through an ecosystem built to scale, from offer creation and dynamic pricing to order management and financial settlement. At the heart of this ecosystem is FLX ONE, our composable, open, and cloud-native platform that delivers on the vision of seamless, intelligent retailing. 

Our platform stands apart in three important ways: 

Open by Nature

Airlines don’t want to be locked into rigid, legacy stacks. FLX ONE is designed for interoperability—open APIs, virtual interfaces for system aggregation, and full support for legacy and modern protocols alike. We store order data as JSON documents that are version-independent, enabling fast, scalable access across systems and ensuring smooth transitions from legacy PSS environments. No mapping nightmares. No constraints. 

Proven at Scale

In modern airline retailing, speed and accuracy are non-negotiable. Relying on batch updates or slow reconciliation processes simply doesn’t cut it anymore especially when customers expect instant responses and seamless experiences across all touchpoints. 

That’s why Accelya has built a platform that works in real time. Our system uses asynchronous, real-time order aggregation, meaning that every change to an order—whether it’s a seat change, a cancellation, or an upgrade—is reflected immediately across all systems. This keeps agents, customers, and operational tools perfectly aligned with the true, up-to-date status of the order. 

Under the hood, we’ve architected our platform for performance at scale. Using DynamoDB, a highly scalable NoSQL database, we’ve decoupled how the system writes and reads data. This means airlines can update, retrieve, and analyze order information instantly, without any lag even as transactions scale into the billions. 

It’s this infrastructure that powers over 33.5 billion offers per day, enabling true retail agility and helping airlines meet the real-time demands of today’s digital traveler. 

Built for the Future

With FLX ONE, we’ve taken a modular, extensible approach that grows with our customers. Whether it’s expanding orchestration to new domains like cargo, extending data nodes to meet specific airline needs, or enabling order-level accounting in real time—our system is designed not just for today, but for what’s next. And with event-driven notifications and full telemetry baked in, our platform doesn’t just support innovation—it enables smarter decision-making with every transaction. 

While others are just catching up to the demands of retailing transformation, Accelya is already helping airlines realize the benefits of One Order at scale. Our platform is not theoretical—it’s in production, driving results, and co-innovated with leading airlines who are building their retailing futures today. 

At Accelya, we’re not just proud to be pioneers. We’re committed to being partners—humble, transparent, and focused on helping our customers grow.