<aside> 💡 Passenger Intelligence Platform that unlocks millions in untapped loyalty and ancillary revenue for travel providers like airlines, hotels and booking websites.

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This is why it’s hard

• $212.3 billion worth of travel ancillaries have been sold in 2023 ($117.9b of which are airlines) and growing at 14.6% CAGR. Despite airlines generating an average of 18.2% of their revenue from ancillaries, the recommendations are not personalized to each individual passenger, nor cost-optimized.
• Due to siloed data sets within the organization and amongst third-party services, travel providers struggle to combine booking, loyalty and market data to get a holistic view of a customer’s preferences and spending power to create intelligent suggestions in real time. This represents a missed opportunity to boost conversion rates and optimize revenue through more personalized and dynamically priced ancillaries.

Here’s why it’s needed/matter

• The travel industry, especially airlines, struggle with weak customer loyalty due to lack of differentiation in soft-product. Travelers often choose airlines based on the lowest fare, making it difficult for airlines to build lasting relationships with their customers. Just 6% of passengers consider loyalty initiatives as the primary factor when selecting an airline.
• As global airline fares have significantly decreased—from an average one-way fare of $306.20 USD in 2013 to $140.69 USD in 2022—ancillary revenue has become increasingly crucial for airlines. This dramatic reduction in ticket prices has pressured airlines to find alternative revenue streams. Ancillary services, such as baggage fees, seat selection, and in-flight purchases, now play a vital role in compensating for the lost revenue from lower ticket prices, making them more important than ever for maintaining profitability.

Traction & Pipeline

• Created a pilot program with Etihad Airways with 1,300 passengers (MVP)
• 1,300 passengers spent 16.5 Million miles on personalized ancillaries (priority boarding, lounge access, chauffeur service etc.) over 12 months.
• Etihad generated $1.6M in additional revenue from only 1300 passengers (for context - Etihad flies 17M passengers annually) and AOV increased by 10.3%
• Arcube bootstrapped to $625,000 (Etihad Pilot Fee) with a 6-figure profit.
• Negotiating a contract to scale the solution to all passengers starting Q2 2025.
• 14 airlines are interested in purchasing Arcube’s full-scale product ($23.5m ARR in the pipeline). Diverse pipeline with a mix of full-service and low-cost carriers.
• Partnerships with 3 Key Distributors: Collinson Group, Visa & Flight Directors provide Arcube access to a scale to 30+ airlines.
• Exploring Airports and OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia etc.) as a next step to scale horizontally.

Here the people who will need it and how they’re currently solving it

Airlines are currently solving the problem by using static upsells during the booking flow & mass email marketing during the pre-departure/-stay. Software providers are tackling certain ancillary-related propositions, such as Plusgrade, TripAdd, and more by “owning” one or more ancillaries - Plusgrade owns the upgrade to premium cabins if inventory allows, TripAdd allows airlines to access other ancillaries outside their usual scope, such as weather updates and eSims.

Here’s why we’re the ones to build it