Blogs
8 mins read 
Foreword – Jim Davidson, Vice Chairman, Accelya
For as long as I’ve worked with airlines, one truth has been impossible to ignore: we spend too much effort making new technology bend to the limits of legacy systems. The result is always the same; diluted outcomes, slower innovation, and industry average margins stuck below 4%.
But it doesn’t have to stay this way. Offers & Orders represent a once-in-a-generation chance to reset the foundations of retailing. Done right, they don’t just simplify processes; they unlock new revenue, reduce costs, and deliver ROI you can measure today, not years from now.
The problem is that too many RFPs still miss the point. Thousands of checklist questions mask what really matters, rewarding safe answers over transformational outcomes. That’s why I believe airlines should stop asking 2,000 questions and start asking just three. These three questions cut through vendor noise and confusion to get to the heart of value, agility, and clarity around legacy.
— Jim Davidson, Vice Chairman, Accelya
Executive Summary
Airline leaders face a paradox: they know margins remain unsustainably thin, yet most “modernization” projects take years to deliver payback. Traditional RFPs often reinforce this cycle – they reward boilerplate answers, focus on compliance instead of outcomes, and leave value trapped behind legacy cores.
This blog proposes a new approach: the 3-Question RFP for Offers & Orders. Instead of waiting years for transformation, airlines can use this framework to demand value now. The three questions focus vendors on:
- Quantifiable value – What revenue and margin uplift will you deliver, and how fast?
- Innovation capacity – How will you enable continuous, low-cost change without disruption?
- Legacy clarity – How does your solution manage or reduce reliance on old cores?
By reframing the RFP, airlines can modernize at their own pace, stay in control, and see measurable returns far sooner.
Why change now
Margins across the airline industry remain under pressure, averaging less than 4% globally according to IATA’s 2025 financial outlook.[1] New processes like continuous pricing, personalization, and richer ancillary services promised better results, but when forced through legacy systems, their value has been incremental at best.
This should not be seen as an unavoidable destiny for airlines — it is the direct consequence of technology constraints. Too much energy, investment, and innovation is spent making modern capabilities interoperate with outdated cores. The result is predictable: value diluted, ROI delayed, and customer engagement undermined.
Independent perspectives confirm this challenge. A recent article from Kemp IT Law, [2] “NDC and One Order: Lawyering the Transition to Modern Airline Retailing”, stresses the importance of addressing legacy dependencies directly in vendor negotiations. Unless airlines remove blockers at the contract level, transformation will remain constrained.
This is precisely why industry standards matter. At Accelya we contributed the first NDC schema to the industry and we continue to forge partnerships to drive openness, interoperability and choice across the ecosystem.
If the industry fails to act at this level, we risk repeating the same cycle: innovation slowed, margins depressed, and money left on the table. By contrast, adopting open standards and addressing legacy dependencies enables airlines to capture value now, while building a retailing foundation fit for the future.
Meanwhile, passengers expect seamless, retail-like experiences. Competitors are moving fast. And investors are demanding sharper returns. Waiting years for payback is no longer an option.
Offers & Orders provide a cleaner foundation: one order record that spans offer creation, fulfilment, servicing, and settlement. This simplifies operations, improves customer experience, and creates a reliable data core for AI. Crucially, it allows airlines to deliver value now while building for the future.
Why Traditional RFPs Fail
Long-form RFPs have their place. They provide rigour, comparability, and governance, and frameworks from respected consultancies remain invaluable. But when they dominate, they risk turning into exercises in box-ticking rather than decision-making.
The tie gets broken on price, not on outcomes. Integration challenges, legacy reliance, and delayed ROI only appear later.
When it comes to Offers & Orders, this approach doesn’t just slow progress, it risks undermining the entire business case.
The better approach: strip RFPs back to the essentials. Ask a few sharp questions that expose real differences between vendors.
The 3 Questions Airlines Must Ask
Q1. Value
What revenue per-passenger uplift and margin improvement will your platform deliver, on what timeline, and how will you prove it?
- Look for quantified value models, case studies, and real measurement plans.
- Watchpoint: Vague feature claims with no link to financial outcomes.
Q2. Innovation Capacity
How will this platform let us do everything we do today more efficiently, while continuously innovating at low cost over the next several years?
- Look for modular design, open APIs, and rapid time-to-change metrics.
- Watchpoint: Innovation tied to vendor-controlled roadmaps.
Q3. Legacy Clarity
What level of reliance does your platform have on legacy technology, and how are those dependencies being managed or reduced?
- Look for transparency and clear strategies to reduce legacy reliance.
- Watchpoint: Solutions that present themselves as “modern” but still depend heavily on older systems.
Proof in Action: Lufthansa Group
The Lufthansa Group has already shown how to deliver value without waiting years:
- 50% of indirect bookings are now via NDC.
- 75% of all bookings are either NDC or direct.
- Exclusive offers (Light Fares, Green Fares) differentiate products at scale.
Their approach is deliberately incremental, rolling out capabilities step by step, proving value at each stage before scaling further. The results: measurable uptake, stronger customer engagement, and a retailing platform positioned for One Order.
In 2025, Lufthansa Group accelerated further. Together with Accelya, Lufthansa Group’s API was recognized by IATA as the furthest developed in the industry through the Air Retailing Maturity Index. NDC adoption grew strongly in the corporate segment (up 23% year-to-date), while overall production in the Americas and Asia-Pacific (APAC) posted double-digit gains over the last 12 months.
Servicing also advanced significantly. By enabling end-to-end functions such as multiple exchanges, refunds, involuntary and voluntary changes, and ancillaries, Lufthansa Group helped one agency partner reduce average handling time for involuntary cases by 70%. At the same time, the Lufthansa Group expanded its partner reach through new interline connections with its Joint Venture partners: United Airlines and Air Canada (with Singapore Airlines to follow) – demonstrating how modern retailing strengthens both servicing and network collaboration under an NDC framework.
Looking ahead, the Lufthansa Group plans to continue investing heavily to make NDC-based distribution more attractive than legacy Edifact, and to transition toward a fully modular Offers & Orders setup. This is modern retailing in practice – not theory, not a roadmap.
How Airlines Can Modernize At Their Pace
The airlines leading the way are proving that transformation doesn’t mean disruption. Their approach:
- Start where the value is clear – bundles, ancillaries, or corporate products.
- Pilot, measure, and learn – in defined markets or channels.
- Scale progressively – add modules that deliver immediate ROI.
- Keep legacy at the edge – bridges exist, but never at the core.
- Invest in resilience – so reliability grows with innovation.
This path ensures airlines deliver results now while building the foundation for sustainable growth.
Conclusion
Airlines have lived with constrained margins for too long. Traditional RFPs reinforce the problem, producing slow, costly projects that struggle to pay back. It’s time to re-think the process.
The solution is to respect the rigour of procurement but reframe it around three outcome-focused questions: value, innovation capacity, and legacy clarity. Ask them well, and you’ll expose vendor differences, cut through noise, and make choices that deliver value now – not in five years’ time.
Offers & Orders make it possible to deliver value now, while preparing for the long-term shift to One Order. The only question is whether you’ll act, or wait while competitors move ahead.
Why Accelya
Accelya’s FLX ONE platform is designed to answer the three questions head-on:
- Value: proven revenue uplift, cost savings, and efficiency gains.
- Innovation: open, modular, cloud-native architecture built on AWS.
- Legacy clarity: order-first design that reduces dependency on PSS cores.
With over 30B offers per day, 50%+ of global NDC bookings, and $100B revenue settled annually, FLX ONE is not theory – it is proven at scale. Airlines can modernize at their own pace, with confidence and measurable ROI.
Don’t wait years for payback. Start your journey today with a consult or demo from Accelya.
