Project Description
Danish Air Transport
Thanks to Paxport, DAT was able to get rid of manual processes and accelerate their growth.
Background
Danish Air Transport has served the Nordic airspace for over 30 years. With a big number of passengers and within several business areas, the company is highly dependent on system integration and data migration. Thanks to Paxport, DAT was able to get rid of manual processes and accelerate their growth.
Danish Air Transport (DAT) was founded in 1989 by Jesper and Kirsten Rungholm as a freight transport airline. When it all started 30 years ago, DAT had single aircraft with two engines that flew everything from mail and parcels to race horses.
– The company is a bit larger than that today, with 22 aircrafts in the fleet, says Torben Ravnkilde, Sales Director at DAT. We have over 500 employees, 1.2 million passengers per year and an annual revenue of 1 billion DKK.
Torben has been in the company for nine years and is responsible for the commercial side of the business. The role is strategic in nature, focusing on profitability, long-term business development and finding new ways to make ends meet in a competitive industry. The last part includes ensuring efficient investments that are profitable in the long haul.
(Picture – Torben Ravnkilde)
Complex business
The business is primarily standing on four legs. They operate owned scheduled routes, both domestically (in Denmark and Norway) and internationally (from Esbjerg to Aberdeen and Stavanger). A big chunk of the business is based on collaboration with tour operators such as Apollo and PrimoTours. DAT is also supplying other airlines, such as Norwegian Air and Scandinavian Airlines, with their aircraft and crew.
– On top of that, we also host ad-hoc flights where companies, larger groups, and sports teams charter our aircrafts for one-off flights and destinations, Torben adds.
Combining data
However, with several business areas, system integration and data migration is usually a hassle. It all escalated in 2012 when DAT started fly holiday tourists where tickets were booked in another system. There was no system in place that could combine the data sent from the tour operators.
The team at DAT would, manually, translate the data into a language that was understood by the airports they flew from. They needed an easy way to manage all their passenger data and flight information, and distribute it to concerned parties.
– As a traveller, you might book an all-inclusive trip to Marbella with Primotours and you get a confirmation email with all the details. However, when you and your family arrive at the airport, the agent as the check-in counter says: “Who are you?” because the data was not transmitting. That is not a nice way to start your vacation. We needed a professional partner to help us with that issue.
Bang for the buck
That is where Paxport came into the picture. Torben and his colleagues at DAT had heard about Paxport from an industry colleague. Knowing that a fully integrated system from Amadeus was too expensive, Paxport quickly made it to the top of the list over solution vendors.
– Paxport offers a great value at a reasonable cost. They were professional and fluent within the tour operator business, which was key for us. They also have full integration with catering companies, tax-free and other pre-order sales options, says Torben and concludes:
– We started out with 3-4 rotations per week and have continuously increased the commitment. We have been happy ever since we started to work together and do not see a reason to change a winning team. DAT and Paxport are growing together!