OAG (Air Travel Intelligence)

OAG

Type of business	Private company
Available in	Multilingual
Founded	1929, Luton, England
Headquarters	Luton, England
Area served	Europe, North America, Asia, Australasia and Latin America
Key people	Phil Callow, CEO[1]
Industry	Aviation, Travel
Parent	AXIO Data Group
Website	www.oag.com www.flightview.com
Current status	Active

OAG is an air travel intelligence company based in United Kingdom. It provides digital information and applications to the world's airlines, airports, government agencies and travel-related service companies. OAG is best known for its airline schedules database which holds future and historical flight details for more than 900 airlines and over 4,000 airports.

It holds an extensive flight status and day-of-travel database in the aviation market and provides analytical tools to assess air travel trends.

Headquartered in the UK, OAG serves the air travel community from its global network of offices situated in the UK, United States, Singapore, Japan and China.

Early History

The OAG business dates back to 1853 when it first published the ABC Alphabetical Railway Guide, later to inspire Agatha Christie’s novel The ABC Murders. The origin of the OAG brand dates back to 1929 when the "Official Aviation Guide Of The Airways" was first published in February 1929 in the United States, listing 35 airlines offering a total of 300 flights. After the Guide was taken over by a rival publication in 1948, the September issue carried the OAG title for the first time. The "ABC World Airways Guide" containing maps and tips for travellers was first published in the UK in 1946. The integration of the ABC and OAG brands occurred following the acquisition of OAG Inc. in 1993 by Reed Elsevier which already owned ABC International.^[2] In August 1996 all products from the combined ABC and OAG businesses were rebranded as OAG.

In 1958 advances in computer technology enabled flight schedules to be sorted and presented by city pair, instead of under separate sections for each airline timetable. This Quick Reference Edition initially included North American flights; starting in 1962 a separate International Quick Reference Edition covered the rest of the world. The two Timetable Editions continued in the traditional format for several more years; the last Worldwide Timetable Edition was March 1969.

In 1962 OAG began providing data to the first computer reservations systems and produced its first customised timetable for airlines. That year, it was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet.^[3] In 1970 the OAG Pocket Flight Guide was published, enabling business travellers to have a pocket-sized resource of flight timetables to take with them. This is still published today, in four regional versions. OAG participated in the development of the IATA Standard Schedules Information Manual (SSIM) for the interchange of airline schedules data. This was established in 1972 and is still the primary source of protocols and formats for the global airline industry. The OAG Electronic Edition was launched in 1983. This was OAG's first online travel planning tool, containing both flight and fare information and available via more than 20 system operators including Compuserve, Dow Jones and Viewtron. Additional databases (weather, arrival/departure information) were added in 1988. That year, Dun & Bradstreet sold OAG to Maxwell Communications.^[4] The company produced the industry’s first PC-based travel planning tool on CD-ROM in 1991, which was so revolutionary that it was supplied with a plug-in CD drive. OAG launched its pioneering analytical tool in 1998, and also its first browser-based travel information product. The Swedish CAA became its first internet timetable customer and the following year Cathay Pacific became the first airline to give its Frequent Flyer Club members online access to OAG Travel Information System through its website. As an early adopter of wireless technology, OAG made its flight information available on the Palm VII wireless organizer in 1999, followed a few months later by its first WAP mobile phone application.

Recent History

Reed Elsevier sold OAG to Electra Partners in 2001.^[5] After five years under private ownership OAG was bought by United Business Media in December 2006 to strengthen its aviation, transportation and travel business interests. UBM sold the majority of its data business to Electra Partners in 2013, who formed AXIO Data Group.^[6]

In 2012, OAG launched OAG Analyser to deliver airline schedule analysis via an online accessible tool.^[7] In 2013, OAG added to its analytical suite with the launch of Traffic Analyser, a product developed in partnership with Travelport; a leading distribution services and e-commerce provider for the global travel industry.^[8]

In 2014, OAG acquired the services of real-time flight information solutions provider, Flightview, to expand its flight data business.^[9] November 2015 saw OAG sell MRO Network, a provider of aviation exhibitions, conferences and publications to the MRO, fleet, financing and leasing sectors.^[10]

Products and Services

Airline Relations

More than 900 airlines supply OAG’s content team with information to manage their schedules and flight status data. OAG combines strong traditional partnerships with the major GDSs, with a wider evolving network of providers across the air travel ecosystem. It customises the method of distribution to suit the type of airline.^[11]

OAG has three main products: Airline Schedules, Flight Status Information and Analytics.

OAG schedules

OAG has a schedules database of more than 900 airlines, including 115 low-cost carriers and over 4000 airports. There are over 165,600 dynamic schedule updates delivered on a daily basis. OAG Schedules products span many formats from Schedules on Demand, which offers instant access to real-time flight schedules to SSIM data files, which delivers passenger flight schedules information, all using delivery methods that can vary from real-time to one-off historical reports.

OAG flightview

In January 2015, OAG acquired FlightView, a leading provider of day of travel and flight status information. Through this acquisition, OAG now has a comprehensive flight status database which can offer customers a wider range of products.

OAG’s flightview brand offers Data APIs, digital display modules for airports and hotels featuring weather, air traffic, flight tracking and FIDS (Flight Information Display Screens).

OAG analytics

OAG ‘s analyser suite comprises 4 modules which give insight and analysis to airline schedules, airport operations and passenger bookings. The schedules module provides frequency and capacity trends as well as route development information. The traffic module utilises passenger booking information from Travelport Illuminate™, such as the number of passengers originating and arriving at a particular airport, load factors on each flight, the size of passenger origin and destination markets, and booked seats on specific routes. Another module focuses on airline connections, minimum connection times (MCTs) and QSI.

OAG’s analytics team also has a market intelligence group who offer bespoke analysis tools to airlines, alliances, airports and wider industry organisations.

References

External links

• OAG