Airline technology firm targets £500m revenue
A MANCHESTER-based company, which has brought groundbreaking technology to the airline industry, is on course to become a £500m company in five years’ time.
Air Black Box is the only internet booking engine that focuses on helping airlines and airports connect seamlessly and cost-effectively.
Founded four years ago by Timothy O’Neil-Dunne and Paul Addy, it has been credited with providing the software that made newly formed airline alliances like Asia’s Value Alliance — made up of Cebu Pacific, JejuAir, Nok, NokScoot, Scoot, Tigerair Australia and Tigerair Singapore and Vanilla Air — a reality.
Customers can view, select and book the best-available airfares on flights from any of the airlines in a single transaction, directly from each partner website, thanks to Air Black Box’s (ABB) technology.
This means more destinations, more routing options and greater convenience for customers of each airline.
The company, which has grown its headcount from five to 40 in just two years and has offices in the US and Singapore, is headquartered at The University of Manchester Innovation Centre’s (UMIC) North Campus Incubator. UMIC is a division of the university’s innovation company, UMI3.
ABB bosses O’Neil-Dunne and Addy said the company, which has multiple patents pending on its technology, is close to signing up more airlines as users.
“Essentially, we have developed an interface which enables airlines to network better so they can sell onward flights to smaller destinations as part of one ticket,” said O’Neil-Dunne, who recently picked up the 2016 WITovation Editor’s Choice Award in Singapore.
“There’s one point of purchase in any number of currencies and a single itinerary encompasses tickets and ticketless bookings issued simultaneously on cooperating airlines.
“Our technology is the right technology for the right time, and there’s nothing else like it.
“We have, if you will, re-imagined the process of airline retailing, starting with the most difficult of all airline products: interlining and multi-carrier connectivity.”
