✈️Navitaire – Quick Study Guide

🧠 What is a PSS?
PSS stands for Passenger Service System.

It’s the core system airlines use to manage everything related to passengers — from booking a
ticket all the way to boarding the plane.

Think of a PSS like the airline’s brain for handling:

1. Reservations (booking flights)

2. Inventory (managing seats and availability)
3. Check-in (at the airport or online)
4. Ticketing (generating travel documents)
5. Customer data (frequent flyers, preferences, etc.)

✈️Airlines Need a PSS to:

 Handle millions of passengers efficiently
 Make sure planes are full and profitable
 Connect with apps, websites, airports, and partners

✈️What is Navitaire?
Navitaire is a technology company that builds software for airlines and rail companies to run
their business. It is a subsidiary of Amadeus IT Group, designed to support low-cost carriers
(LCCs), hybrid airlines, and increasingly, full-service carriers.

🧑‍💼 Who Uses Navitaire?

Navitaire is mostly used by:
  Low-cost airlines like JetSMART, Volaris, and Viva Air
 Hybrid or regional carriers that want flexibility and lower costs

🛫 Why Do Airlines Use Navitaire?

Because it helps them:

1. Sell tickets online through websites and mobile apps

2. Manage bookings (change seats, add bags, etc.)
3. Check in passengers at the airport or online
4. Board planes and track passengers
5. Handle payments, discounts, and promotions
6. Connect with travel agents and government systems

Instead of building all this from scratch, airlines use Navitaire to get everything in one system.

Think of Navitaire as the “brain” behind how low-cost airlines sell tickets, check in
passengers, and fly planes on time.

Navitaire does this using their New Skies product, which is their Passenger Service System
(PSS).

🛫 What is Navitaire New Skies?

New Skies is Navitaire’s main software product. It’s called “New Skies” because it replaced
Navitaire’s older system (“Open Skies”) years ago. It is Navitaire’s Passenger Service System.

New Skies includes modules for:

 Reservations and Ticketing
 Inventory and Fare Management
 Ancillary Sales (bags, seats, meals, etc.)
 Customer Management & Loyalty
 Check-In and Departure Control
 Revenue Accounting and Reporting

So, when an airline says “we use New Skies,” it means they’ve chosen Navitaire as their PSS
provider.
🧠 In Summary:

Term What it means Relation to New Skies

PSS (Passenger A system to manage flight bookings, New Skies is a PSS
Service System) seat inventory, check-in, and
ticketing
New Skies Navitaire’s specific PSS product It’s one of the leading PSS
systems, especially for low-cost
airlines
Navitaire The company that built New Skies Offers PSS solutions for airlines

🛫 How Do Airlines Use New Skies?

Airlines use various components of the New Skies PSS, each serving a specific part of the
passenger journey or airline operations including SkySales, SkySpeed, DotRez, Digital APIs,

🛠️DotRez

🔹 What It Is:

DotRez is the XML-based API layer of New Skies.

It enables third-party systems or airline-owned apps to programmatically interact with the

reservation system.

DotRez is optimized for backend-to-backend communication, using a strict XML

schema. It's best suited for environments where automation, data precision, and transactional
control are prioritized.

 Examples:
o GDS-like tools needing real-time availability and booking.
o A B2B travel platform connecting to multiple airlines to manage bookings.
o A kiosk or check-in system with minimal UI logic but heavy dependency on
backend flows.
🔹 Who Uses It:

 Airlines' development teams

 Technology partners building mobile apps, kiosks, external IBEs, travel agent platforms,
or integration layers.

✈️SkySales

🔹 What It Is:

 SkySales is the Navitaire's traditional web-based booking interface used by airlines to

enable online flight search, booking, and ancillary sales
 In other terms, it is the Navitaire frontend web interface that passengers use to search
for flights, make bookings, purchase ancillaries (baggage, seats, meals), and manage
reservations.

💡SkySales is essentially a Navitaire-provided Internet Booking Engine (IBE) that uses

DotRez as its backend.

🔍 Here's how it breaks down:

Component Description
SkySales A pre-built web interface (IBE) developed by Navitaire that airlines can use
"as is" or customize.
DotRez The backend XML API layer that SkySales uses to communicate with the
New Skies reservation system.

Think of SkySales as the front-end (like a website theme), and DotRez as the brain that
powers its booking logic.

🔹 Who Uses It:

 Airlines typically customize or integrate SkySales into their branded site.

 Passengers/customers on the airline's website or mobile app.

🔹 Use Cases:

 Flight search and booking

 Seat and baggage selection
 Upselling services (e.g., insurance, priority boarding)
 Booking management (MMB - Manage My Booking)
 Payment processing
✅ What You Can Customize in SkySales:

SkySales is built by Navitaire using .NET and [Link] MVC, so airlines are allowed to:

 Modify HTML/CSS/JavaScript for basic UI tweaks.

 Customize some branding elements (logos, colors, fonts).
 Adjust content (static text, messages, labels).
 Add certain front-end validations.
 Configure bundles, ancillaries, and upsells within the limits of the system.

⚠️What’s Hard or Limited to Customize:

1. Page structure & flow logic

– You can’t easily re-arrange the booking flow (e.g., move passenger info before flight
selection).
2. Deep UI/UX changes
– Not ideal for modern UI demands like responsive mobile-first design or app-like
animations.
3. API flexibility
– You’re stuck with what DotRez supports. Unlike Digital APIs, you can’t easily build
custom endpoints or modern REST flows.
4. 3rd-party integrations
– More complex to embed modern services like Google Tag Manager, live chat, or
dynamic personalization tools.
5. Maintenance dependency
– You rely heavily on Navitaire updates and their tech stack decisions.

🧠 In Simple Terms: SkySales can be styled, but not fully redesigned.

💭 Why is this important?

 SkySales was popular in the early to mid-2010s when airlines didn’t want to build their
own booking engines.
 But it's less flexible and less mobile-optimized, which is why many airlines (like
JetSMART, Volaris, etc.) have moved toward building their own UI using Navitaire
Digital APIs instead.

🚀 Why Many Airlines Move Away from SkySales:

 To gain full UI/UX control

 To build mobile apps or responsive sites
 To integrate modern tools and marketing analytics
  To scale and innovate independently from Navitaire’s release cycle

🔍 Navitaire Digital APIs

These are RESTful APIs that expose core functionality from the New Skies platform, enabling
seamless integration with custom front ends or third-party systems. They are essentially the
evolution of the older DotRez XML APIs, built for modern, mobile-first, cloud-native
applications.

Digital APIs are built for frontend-facing applications. They allow developers to build their
own UX while interacting with New Skies through RESTful JSON APIs.

 Examples:
o An airline building its own mobile app or website with custom flows and
branding.
o A travel app that offers cross-sell opportunities with loyalty features.
o A chatbot using APIs to fetch booking or itinerary details for a passenger.

🔧 What Can You Do With Navitaire Digital APIs?

You can build or extend:

 ✈️Flight Search & Booking

 🎟️Manage My Booking (MMB)
 💺 Ancillary Services (baggage, seats, meals)
 💳 Payment & Refund Flows
 🧍 Passenger Profiles / Authentication
 📱 Mobile Apps
 🌐 Custom Internet Booking Engines (IBEs)
 🧾 Itinerary Management & Check-In
 🧑‍💼 Corporate or Government Booking Tools

💡 Benefits of Digital APIs

Feature Benefit
REST-based architecture Modern, lightweight, and mobile-friendly
Stateless and scalable Ideal for cloud deployment & auto-scaling
Headless front-end Enables complete control over UI/UX
 design
Built for omnichannel Use across web, mobile, kiosks, bots, and agents
Secure Supports OAuth, role-based access, and scopes

🆚 DotRez vs. Digital APIs

Feature DotRez (Legacy) Navitaire Digital APIs (Modern)

Format XML REST / JSON
Frontend Binding Web-oriented Headless, channel-agnostic
Flexibility Less customizable Fully flexible, mobile-first
Developer Tools Limited Better tooling and SDKs
Use Case Traditional IBEs, call Mobile apps, web apps, modern frontends
centers

📦 Who Uses It?

Airlines using New Skies (like JetSMART, Wizz Air, Volaris) use Navitaire Digital APIs to:

 Build their own booking websites and mobile apps

 Integrate with third-party systems (e.g., loyalty platforms, payment gateways)
 Create corporate portals or government-specific booking tools
 Enable headless commerce (separating backend logic from UI)

🧠 In Short:

Navitaire Digital APIs empower airlines to deliver faster, modern, and custom travel
experiences by leveraging the backend capabilities of New Skies with full UI/UX freedom.

🚧 Scenarios Where Only DotRez Can Be Used (But

Not Digital APIs)
There are specific scenarios where Digital APIs may not offer full coverage of Navitaire’s
backend capabilities or where DotRez is the required interface. These include:

Scenario Why DotRez is Needed

Complex partner integration DotRez offers more granular control of reservations, often
with full PNR control needed in interline, codeshare, or GDS-like scenarios.
Legacy system requirements Some partner systems (e.g., older payment gateways, B2B
(XML) tools) only support XML-based communication.
Kiosk integrations using Legacy kiosk or POS systems still depend on DotRez flows
older Navitaire flows due to established format and schema.
 Full servicing of advanced Some advanced booking, servicing, or ancillary configurations
bundles or SSRs may be available only through specific DotRez methods.
Third-party payment and Platforms requiring detailed itinerary and fare breakdown may
settlement platforms still prefer DotRez due to depth of detail in response.
Certain loyalty or voucher Some older loyalty point redemption logic and voucher
use cases issuance workflows are better supported in DotRez.

📝 Note: Over time, many of these are being replatformed to Digital APIs, but airlines with
legacy dependencies or in hybrid integrations still require DotRez.

🧑‍💼 SkySpeed
🔹 What It Is:

 SkySpeed is the agent desktop application used by airline and airport staff.
 It’s a graphical interface for performing functions like check-in, seat assignments, PNR
updates, and irregular operations handling.

🔹 Who Uses It:

 Airline agents
 Airport check-in staff
 Call center staff

💡 What is SkySpeed Really For?

SkySpeed is primarily a Departure Control System (DCS) — used by airport agents for:

 Passenger check-in
 Seat assignment
 Baggage check
 Boarding
 Handling disruptions (e.g., missed flights)

✈️But Can It Be Used to Book Tickets?

Yes, in special cases. SkySpeed includes a module called:

🔹 SkySpeed Res (Reservation Module)

This allows trained airport or call center staff to:

 Create a new booking

 Add passenger information
 Add ancillaries like bags or seats
 Collect payment (or mark as pay-later)
 Modify existing bookings

✅ When Is SkySpeed Used for Reservations?

Situation Why Use SkySpeed Res

Last-minute airport booking Walk-in customer at a check-in counter

Disruption handling Rebooking due to cancelled/delayed flight

Staff-only fares or manual overrides Special permissions or agent-only pricing

Call center fallback When other systems like SkySales or Digital UI are down or limited

🔧 Navitaire Utilities and Components Explained

Component What It Is Purpose / Role

Used to pull data directly from New Skies databases or systems for
NoNav (No A data
reporting, reconciliation, or integration purposes without going
Navigator) extraction utility
through the full Navitaire UI or APIs.

Collects, stores, and consolidates airline operational data from New

ODS (Operational A centralized
Skies for real-time or batch reporting, analytics, and business
Data Store) data repository
intelligence. Helps airlines monitor operations and performance.

Used for system maintenance, data migration, batch processing,

Navitaire Various tools data validation, and automations within the New Skies ecosystem.
Utilities and scripts These might include queue processors, notification services, or
invoice generators.

The core New Used by airline staff to manage bookings, inventory, and daily airline
Navigator
Skies UI/console operations. Often refers to the backend user interface.

How They Fit Together:

 NoNav helps get data out efficiently for external systems or reports.
  ODS is like a big warehouse where operational data is stored for analytics and decision-
making.
 Utilities are behind-the-scenes helpers that keep everything running smoothly.
 Navigator is the “control room” interface airline staff use to manage flights and
passengers.

Digital API Flows

skies