SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Switchfly, Inc., the technology company powering travel search/booking, loyalty program engagement and ancillary merchandising solutions for the world’s most celebrated airlines, hotels, online travel agencies and financial services companies, today announced some insight into the company’s continued growth. In the past year, Switchfly has doubled in size and has seen increased bookings through its platform. Switchfly’s platform generated $2 billion in travel commerce in 2015.
The company also developed a new solution for airlines to sell first-party ancillaries, in addition to third-party ancillaries, and expanded business with several clients, including American Express and FlightCentre. Both American Express and FlightCentre added Switchfly’s agent capability for streamlined customer service, supporting thousands of agents around the world. Additionally, another of the top third multinational financial services corporations joined the Switchfly family as a new client for concierge-style services and co-branded partner travel booking.
“Our platform and business continues to scale well through current customer growth and new client additions,” said Daniel Farrar, CEO of Switchfly. "We will further develop solutions that leverage our technology to help customers improve the travel experience, and we expect 2016, like 2015, to be another banner year.”
In 2015, Switchfly saw an increase in platform traffic, travel revenue and travel experience. Forty billion points were redeemed on the platform in 2015—a 7.1% increase in points year-over-year.
As for traffic on the Switchfly platform, Switchfly saw significant growth in 2015 as well:
- 5,200 agents utilizing the platform
- 28 million searches per month
- 10 million requests per day
- 1 million+ room bookings in 2015
- 400K+ package bookings in 2015
- 40K+ activity bookings in 2015
- 250K+ car bookings in 2015
Poised for more growth
“Key to our success this past year—and to our continued success in 2016—is strategic new hires and the growing strength of our leadership team,” said Farrar. The company doubled in size in 2015—growing in staff size from 160 employees and contractors in early 2015 to 319—and made significant additions to its executive team, bringing on Chief Financial Officer Scott Cross, Chief Technology Officer Rick Cirigliano and Executive Vice President Human Resources Amy Shat. Kevin Wray joined as Chief Commercial Officer, and Diego Dugatkin joined as Executive Vice President of Corporate and Business Development. Graham Blankenbaker was moved from Chief Technology Officer to Chief Product Officer. Continuing its dedication to gender equality in the workplace, Switchfly also brought on five new VPs (in Professional Services, Strategic Account Management, Marketing, IT and Business Development), all of whom are women.
Switchfly will move to a new, bigger headquarters in San Francisco in 2016 to accommodate the growth. Most of the resources will support Switchfly’s new client base, along with new, expanded business with current clients.
"Switchfly's impressive performance this year illustrates the robust nature of the global travel industry and points to both a great end to 2015 and solid outlook for 2016," said Henry Harteveldt, founder and travel industry analyst at Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry research firm. Harteveldt added, “Switchfly’s results align with Atmosphere’s independent research of U.S. travelers, which shows that in 2015, 76% of travelers wanted to get better value for their travel dollar—a view we expect to remain equally strong in 2016.”
New solutions and launches
2015 also saw the development of a new solution dedicated to airlines and the ability to quickly and easily add first-tier ancillary products to their online merchandising mix. The new Air solution will launch early this year. Ancillary products have proven themselves to be the key to profitability for airlines. Switchfly’s Air solution will allow fast, dynamic and flexible airline booking and merchandising for any size of airline, with the option of integrating with the airline’s loyalty program.
With regard to the new Air solution, “These folks have created a dynamic merchandising solution that optimizes airline ancillary revenue,” said Jay Sorensen, President, IdeaWorksCompany. “I think very highly of this company, as they have a solid reputation for delivering quality services. When they say they are going to do something, they deliver.”
Industry recognition
Switchfly was recognized several times as a technology leader in 2015: 50 of the Fastest Growing Tech Companies (Silicon Review), Top 100 FinTech Provider (OnFinance) and as a finalist for San Francisco’s Best Technology Work Culture (Timmy Awards). In addition, Grace Reyes from the Corporate and Business Development team was selected as one of Phocuswright’s 35 Under 35 in the Phocuswright Young Leaders Summit.
Switchfly also collaborated with IdeaWorksCompany to produce the first-ever Switchfly Hotel Reward Payback Survey, which provides an average “reward payback” for key hotel brands in four global frequent guest programs: Hilton HHonors, IHG Rewards, Marriott Rewards and Starwood SPG.
ABOUT SWITCHFLY
Switchfly, Inc., is a global technology company that powers travel commerce, loyalty program engagement and ancillary merchandising solutions for some of the world’s most recognizable brands. Leading airlines, hotels, online travel agencies and financial service providers depend on Switchfly to power their omni-channel travel experiences because it uniquely combines a highly scalable and secure architecture with deep product and content inventory. Powerful analytics and real-time decision engines foster contextually-rich customer engagement and enable brands to offer a wide range of customized travel services to their customers. Headquartered in San Francisco, Switchfly generates more than $2 billion in revenue for its clients annually and facilitates the redemption of more than 40 billion reward points and miles each year. The company’s global client roster includes American Airlines, JetBlue and LAN Airlines; IAG Avios, Lufthansa Miles & More and United MileagePlus; InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Starwood Hotels and Resorts; and Groupon and Living Social. For more information, visit www.switchfly.com.