Omnevo, a leading provider of revenue-increasing digital platform solutions for airports and airlines and Frankfurt Airport (FRA) owner and operator Fraport, have gone live with the latest advanced version of Omnevo’s omnichannel e-commerce solution.

Additionally, the two companies have extended their long-term partnership for a further five years. The aim is to develop the digitalisation of the airport’s range of products and services for the almost 70 million passengers FRA was handling annually before the pandemic.

The existing digital solution platform, which Omnevo’s parent company AOE had originally developed for Fraport in 2015 was migrated to the latest Omnevo product version.

Through its original partnership with AOE, Fraport utilised the OM³ digital platform (now known as Omnevo) to become the world’s first omnichannel airport focused entirely on omnichannel before and, especially, during the pandemic.

The newly enhanced Omnevo cloud solution enables the operation of a complete airport marketplace solution for all travel retail sales “at a fraction of the costs previously required for such a leading ecosystem”, creating new revenue opportunities for crisis-hit airports of any size.

FUTURE-PROOFED DIGITAL STRATEGY

With its flexible SaaS solution, Fraport has future-proofed its digital strategy by integrating directly in the Omnevo product roadmap. This enables it to benefit from Omnevo’s strategy of continuously improving the solution.

Kian Gould, Founder and CEO of AOE and Chairman of Omnevo said: “We are delighted to share this new five-year agreement with Fraport to continue our future-oriented work in the implementation of a sustainable and profitable business model for the global travel retail sector, which we proudly pioneered with Fraport at Frankfurt Airport, in 2015, as our first airport customer.

“Fraport and Frankfurt Airport have since maintained their clear focus on the vision that originally motivated Fraport to digitalise its business model. The vision was namely, to transform stationary trade into an omnichannel travel retail and shopping hub, with the ultimate goal of serving passengers with relevant information, shopping options and services — all instantly available, in the right place at the right time.

“Especially during the Corona crisis, which has led to an almost complete standstill for most of the travel industry for so many months, Fraport was able to continue generating sales through its digital marketplace solution while many other airports’ shops remained closed, inflicting huge losses in revenue.”

Demonstrating the adaptability of the digital platform, the launch of the new Omnevo solution was marked by the temporary availability of online shopping to non-flying guests.

Purchases, including a program of online exclusive offers are delivered for free throughout Germany. Omnevo said that the versatility of the delivery fulfilment system had helped completely compensate for the coronavorus-related losses from the airport’s suspended click & collect business, securing Fraport vital revenues even during the global crisis.

Jens Paul, Head of Retail, Digital, Fraport AG commented: “During the coronavirus crisis, Omnevo once again showed us how important a flexible digital marketplace solution and alternative sales channels really are in travel retail. We look forward to continuing to shape the next few years with Omnevo.

“By continuing on our digital path, we are able to react much faster and more flexibly to unpredictable situations and dynamic market developments and to implement new digital business models.”

Since the AOE Group began its digital journey with Fraport in 2015 the solution has been continuously developed. Following its launch with Frankfurt Airport, it has been implemented at many other airports including Heathrow and Auckland.

AOE Group’s specialist aviation division has been operating under the Omnevo name since the beginning of this year.