In Colombia there is freedom of prices according to the levels of competition that the airlines handle and there is the freedom for each airline to set the value of their air tickets. Civil Aeronautics does not intervene in the fixing of ticket prices, which adopts a tariff policy aimed at promoting free competition in the air transport market.

The administrative fee is included in the total price of the ticket and is regulated by routes since 2006. This additional charge corresponds to the administrative expenses incurred by airlines and travel agencies, when making a purchase by the users. The entity in charge of regulating this tariff is the Civil Aeronautics.

Each year, once the rate is fixed, this value must be reflected in the final value of the ticket. Normally the increase will depend on the CPI of the previous year and for international passages it is settled in dollars.

Impact

As a tax that is only charged in Colombia is not part of the Amadeus Core, but by regulation of civil aeronautics must be reflected / discriminated in all national or international tickets that pass through Colombia.

It was required by the airline that the values ​​of that charge could be centrally managed so that its administration / liquidation would be common to all sales channels and according to the tariff rules that apply to each particular reservation.

It is then required that this centrally managed value be incorporated into all reservations made by Amadeus in such a way that it could be reflected in all tickets.

Knowledge of the airline business was a great help in the solution process.

What makes it different?

It was necessary to develop a web service which would handle the rules established by the business to settle the value according to the type of reservation and could be consumed by all sales channels for the quotation and settlement of Administrative fee with allocation of reservations in real time to incorporate said charge (when applicable) without detriment of response times.

This web service is highly concurrent and requires high traceability. Service availability is critical because it directly affects the company’s revenues. Consequently, the architecture of a product such as these must be carefully designed to withstand high demands on requests and response times.

The development components that support this service have proven solid and have remained active and up to date today. At the same time, its flexibility in the design has allowed to make changes (minimum) required that have been adjusted to the dynamic rules of the air transport business over time.