Before the Riyadh Air project, no one had separated offer optimization and offer orchestration within an Offer and Order system. Traditionally, revenue management and the PSS have often been separate, but offers did not exist as structured objects. This level of separation in an O&O architecture had no precedent.
In many areas IATA had documented how these pieces should connect. In others, there was no guidance at all. Offer optimization fell into the second category. The standards described how to distribute offers and how to structure orders. They did not describe how to align optimization and orchestration in a way that was stable and repeatable.
The only way forward was to work through it together. Riyadh Air brought clear goals. Sabre brought experience of price optimization. We brought a view of what the system needed to stay predictable in downstream servicing and accounting. The discussions took time. Each team held strong views shaped by years of work in different parts of the industry. The shared commitment was simple: make decisions that support the airline and strengthen the system for the future.
The outcome was a clean integration pattern that we documented and made repeatable. It gave the airline a stable solution. It also removed friction for future projects.
This is the principle behind Removing the Friction in action.
Where Friction Happens
Airlines face friction in several forms. Systems do not align. Data from different vendors does not match. Processes depend on legacy rules that limit how parts of the system behave. Integrations move slower than expected. Product changes wait for updates across multiple teams. Vendor contracts shape timelines in ways that have nothing to do with technology. Multi vendor environments amplify these issues. Each partner has its own system boundaries, release cycles, and assumptions.
These issues appear early in almost every modernization program. They create unnecessary delays and increase the cost of change. Removing the friction means addressing the structure that creates these slowdowns.
Design Decisions That Remove Friction
We made deliberate architectural decisions that reduce friction before the project begins.
We built a unified model for Offer and Order. This gives every product, price, and service event a single place to exist. Airlines and partners reference the same structure. This reduces confusion and rework.
We aligned to ONE Order. We avoided recreating legacy artifacts in new forms. This gave us a clean foundation for selling, servicing, order accounting and fulfillment.
We built a modular platform. Airlines adopt what they need. Partners integrate through stable interfaces. Mixed environments remain reliable. The system does not assume a monolith. It assumes external connections, external logic, and external ownership.
We built the Legacy Translator. It handles the translation between legacy constructs and ONE Order structures. It removes the effort of reconciling how each environment expresses the same information. It supports long periods of dual world operation, which the industry will face for years.
Where the standards left gaps, we collaborated with partners to create stable, repeatable integration flows. These patterns support clean vendor boundaries, clear ownership, and predictable sequencing.
We stayed committed. Conviction mattered more than taking the simple path. During Cart development with IBM and Riyadh Air, we faced several points where shortcuts looked attractive. Each time, we made the choice that protected the vision and prevented friction later.
These decisions increased predictability. They shaped how we integrate. They shaped how partners work with us. They shaped how quickly the system adapts when new requirements appear.
How Delivery Moves Faster
Clean architecture shapes delivery speed. So does the way we work.
We ship small, frequent releases – major releases every month, minor releases every week. This avoids long upgrade cycles and reduces the cost of change. Our CICD pipelines support short turnaround times. Decisions sit with teams closest to the work.
Modularity gives airlines more control. The system avoids dependency on any single vendor. This removes commercial friction that often slows progress more than technical factors.
Clear patterns improve coordination with partners. Riyadh Air moved quickly because the structure supported their pace. Their team brought strong views, detailed questions and ideas which hadn’t been deemed feasible before. Removing friction made those ideas viable.
Financial clarity is another outcome. Order provides a single source of truth of real time revenue data so that Order Accounting can also settle and report on revenue in real time. This was made possible by modular design and collaboration with specialists who focus on accounting. The architecture also supports complex scenarios, such as cross-partner disruptions or mixed payment flows, because the system treats every part of the trip through one consistent structure.
These outcomes show how architecture shapes the pace and quality of delivery.
Benefits Across Three Dimensions
Customer benefits.
Faster handling of changes. Consistent information. A simple path for self service. More flexibility when they need or want it.
Airline benefits.
Enhanced customer experience with lower servicing cost. Faster innovation, quicker time-to-value and more control to design the ecosystem.
Technology benefits.
Unified data. Stable APIs. Hybrid support. Clear alignment to ONE Order. Faster change cycles.
Removing the friction affects each dimension. The impact compounds over time.
What Removing the Friction Means
- A unified, future-proof model for Offer & Order.
- Consistent data across partners.
- A reassuring and predictable path through dual world operations.
- Defined patterns where the industry has gaps.
- Interfaces that stay stable.
- Decisions that prevent legacy patterns from returning.
- Change that becomes safer over time.
Removing the friction is how delivery becomes predictable. It is how partners align. It is how airlines grow without adding complexity. It is how the system stays clean as the industry evolves.
The work with Riyadh Air, IBM, Ink, Sabre and the other partners in that room is a clear example of what Removing the Friction looks like. The goal was to create a structure that would hold up for decades, support the airline, and stay clean as the system grows. That same principle guided every choice that followed. When the fundamental design of the architecture removes friction, delivery moves faster naturally.
If you are following this series, the next post will focus on Data You Can Work With. The quality of data shapes every part of Offer and Order, from shopping to servicing. It is the foundation for trust, accuracy, and automation. It is also the principle that makes every other part of the system predictable.
Follow the series or visit flyr.com to learn more.
