The past two decades have seen seismic change in how people plan and books travel. The three drivers of this are; 1. Internet information – access ease and information 2. Low Cost Travel Airlines - 3. Government focus on integrated public transport, coupled with improved service and growth in use of trains trams and buses. The net results are that people can plan travel by transport type and in some instances get details of multimodal options e.g. walk, bus train, bus walk. However the market failing is the absence of joined up travel planning and the ability to book and communicate regarding an entire multi point and multi modal journey. Other failings are; 1. Limitation of search methods that do not produce full options, 2. Travellers who are poorly informed of alternative options as they work on preconceived ideas of what their journey should look like, and 3. Search methods that respond to traveller enquiries with no thought to options of peak and non-peak time, that do not see full end to end timing implications e.g. travel by train to a London Airport may cost more than the flight. Therefore there is an urgent demand for a step change in technology that will allow passenger to construct and maintain reasonably complex itineraries, avoiding the pitfalls of connecting disparate bookings (let alone the shifting circumstances issues that are encountered once the journey begins) This Project - "OPTTIMAL" - 'Open Platform Travel Technology Integrating Multimodal Available Links' will in Phase 1 produce a complete and very comprehensive Business and Technical Project Plan. This will lead to Phase 2 comprising the development and implementation of an open platform which allows vendors to coexist equally and travellers to construct and maintain itineraries across complex (but common) itineraries. This will include the use of a vast quantity of travel related data produced from multiple sources (both open and commercial). The end platform - OPTTIMAL - will scale to provide real-time data in a helpful and insightful manner. The technical challenge will be the efficient embedding of third party (vendor) connections with sufficient performance and exposed functionality to give customers confidence to book, and then to provide the vendors with an enhanced understanding of customer interactions, leading to improvements in the acquisition/retention of customers and increased revenue per customer. Air Black Box Company Limited have a history of developing and deploying advances in travel software and systems and, critically, reaching and influencing players in the key channels who can integrate and adopt. OPTTIMAL offers a global business opportunity and has a clear fit with the requirements of UK internal and outbound travel, as well as for inbound tourism.

The Air Black Box Company Ltd intends to develop and launch an integrated and comprehensive software suite that overcomes the failings in air travel support systems which have developed in the face of the fundamental market shift of the last decade: the massive international growth of low cost carriers [LCC /Budget Airlines]. Air travel was historically driven by legacy carriers using hub airports as connect points that enabled inter/intracontinental traffic, now there has been a paradigm shift. The key issue now is that there is no system that enables the connection of LCC and network carriers. The situation is deteriorating with airports now losing up to 30% traffic as legacy airlines withdraw from markets where LCCs dominate. Airports have been left to 3rd party providers to offer self-connections, forcing passengers to select itineraries of 2 or more non-interline (connecting) carriers. This results in disservice and high cost to consumers, falling traffic efficiency for airports and increased CO2 emissions through waste and inefficient use of available resources. ABB’s innovative Airport Comprehensive Engine [ACE] builds on ABB's Open Information Architecture platform providing a comprehensive system that airlines & airports can use to interconnect. Alternative options are either expensive, or partial and complex, and by using innovative technology and enhanced processes ABB’s ACE will address these imbalances. ACE creates clear benefits for 3 stakeholder groups. For Airports, (the primary target group) it enables connections for cross flow of passengers. For Airlines, it creates connections where there are either none available or they are not competitive. For Passengers, it will result in more choice, lower costs and opportunities for travel to places in a single booking. A UK company with global reach, will utilise multi-layered technology for virtual connections and logistics handling, and valueadd products that increase consumer travel options.

Every year 4 billion plane trips are taken. The Airline industry has divided into two clear segments – Full Service traditional airlines and the newer Low Cost Carriers. Their different business models are powered by radically differing technology systems that are incompatible thus creating an increasing problem of passengers [PAX] unable to transfer between the global networks and the short haul LCCs. As the LCCs capture significant market share, passengers each year are now facing less choice, not more. Only a certain amount of inconvenience is acceptable no matter the cost savings. The Airport Blackbox [ABB] with our Open Systems methodology, believes, the time is right for a new approach to the solving this complex commercial and industry wide problem. ABB believes that a radically different product service platform is necessary. This requires innovative technology to deliver a new family of solutions into the market. This future connectivity will benefit many stakeholders such as airlines and airports while retaining widely accepted practices. However the biggest winner will be the consumer who will have more choice of pathways to destinations. He/she will have access to more competitive fares at the same or comparable service standard. Such developments will allow passengers to fly from any point to any point at the lowest cost and least time requirement, whilst positively impacting on carbon footprints. The project proposes systematic statistical analysis of the issues posed by the commercial problems. It will evaluate the potential opportunity, and the development of new innovative technologies to address existing and unserved market needs. Combining deep experience and insight with hard data and developing practical solutions is a critical requirement. The solution envisaged would include advanced data capture, raw invention of algorithmic searches and complex information integration, in turn delivering benefit to all stakeholders.