Passenger Revenue Accounting
Built Jointly with SAP for a German Airline
A large German airline was running an obsolete, manual-heavy Passenger Revenue Accounting System assembled from countless individual components that could no longer be maintained. Because no corresponding module existed in the SAP environment, We As Web built a new SAP industry solution together with SAP — halving the operations crew head-count through dark processing, and raising the airline's own revenue through parameterized ticket revenue distribution inside IATA regulations.
Discuss Your Project →The system the passenger never sees, that decides whether the flight earned money
In the travel industry, air transport plays an increasingly important role — and alongside operations, marketing and sales, the administrative systems decide whether every flight actually earns money. What the passenger sees before departure is only the booking system: it suggests a trip, issues a ticket, debits the money. But that is the beginning of a much larger machine, at the centre of which sits the Passenger Revenue Accounting System. The PRAS generates the key figures an airline uses to control profit and delivers the economic result. To do that it needs interfaces to every important airline, internal and external system — like a spider in a web. This airline's PRAS had grown over the years into countless individual components, required a huge amount of manual work, and could no longer be maintained.
What prompted the project
Replacing a revenue accounting system is not a reporting project — the airline needed the economic result of every ticket to keep landing correctly while the engine underneath it was replaced.
Replace an Unmaintainable PRAS
Retire a legacy system assembled from countless individual components that could no longer be maintained — without losing the accounting chain it carried.
Remove the Manual Work
The legacy PRAS required a huge amount of manual effort. Month-end tasks had to move from people to dark processing.
Settle Against Every Surrounding System
Booking, fares, IATA, boarding and bonus programs all have to be reconciled before a ticket becomes a realized euro.
Fit the Existing SAP Landscape
The new solution had to slot natively into the airline's SAP landscape — not run as a parallel stack on the side.
Raise Own Revenue Inside IATA Rules
Improve the distribution of ticket revenues in the airline's favour, strictly within the defined regulations of IATA.
Why an expert partner was required
The challenge was not only the scope of the processes, but also the connection of all supply and acceptance systems — and the fact that the target platform had no product to build on.
What We As Web delivered
We As Web analyzed the processes and developed a modern application based on SAP — then wired the spider's web of supply and acceptance systems around it.
Process Analysis
Map every existing component of the legacy PRAS: what it did, who ran it, where it broke.
A New SAP Industry Solution, Built with SAP
Since there was no corresponding module in the SAP environment, we built a new SAP industry solution together with SAP.
The Interface Web, in Production
Booking, fare, IATA, boarding and bonus systems connected as five classes of interface around one core.
Parameterized Processing & Dark Processing
Distribution rules for ticket revenue expressed as parameters in the system, and month-end tasks that run without intervention.
Half the operations crew, full transparency, higher own revenue
The result was impressive. The airline gained transparency from online control through to the balance sheet, halved its operations head-count, and increased its own revenue — all within the framework of the defined regulations of IATA.
In operation, the airline was able to reduce its crew by half because the new system carried out many tasks in dark processing. For the remaining tasks, a few highly specialized accounting employees were sufficient.
The airline achieved a high level of transparency — online control, capacity utilization, and monthly accounting statements running all the way up to the balance sheet.
Through the parameterized processing, especially the distribution of ticket revenues, the airline significantly increased its own revenue — all within the framework of the defined regulations of IATA.
A cross-team lift of some 160 consultants and developers replaced countless legacy components against a single timeline.
One SAP solution, five interface classes, one economic result
A new SAP industry solution at the core, native to the airline's existing FI/CO, BW and controlling landscape, surrounded by the front-office, pricing and industry interfaces that turn a flown leg into a realized euro.
Other systems are visible. The PRAS is invisible — and that is the point.
The PRAS is the system that turns a flown leg into a realized euro. It does not talk to passengers; it talks to the booking engine, the fare database, the boarding system, the bonus program and IATA. Its outputs — capacity utilization, the monthly accounting statement, the balance sheet — are what the airline actually runs on. When that system is an unmaintainable stack of components held together by manual work, the airline is guessing at its own economic result.
By analyzing the legacy processes, building a new SAP industry solution jointly with SAP, and wiring five classes of interface into production, we gave a large German airline a revenue accounting core that runs its month-end in dark processing and distributes ticket revenue by parameter rather than by hand. By creating this central travel industry application, We As Web gained deep experience across the entire field — experience that carries into every airline, GDS and travel platform engagement since.