Challenges of an Airline Revenue Manager

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Here’s an interesting career choice for anyone in the hospitality industry—Airline Revenue Manager. Anyone who has ever flown for business or pleasure knows the hassles of flight scheduling. As a Revenue Manager (RM), you’ll be the person who can make a traveler’s life easier.

For example, you’ll put to rest the rumor that Tuesday nights and Saturday midnights are the lowest time for airfares. Experienced RMs will tell you that market conditions drive fares and that passenger counts change rapidly on any one flight. Many airlines often announce sales on a Monday, with other airlines trying to match those fares the following day.

Any single flight could have 20 or more different fares based on advances or the number of days a traveler will stay at a specific destination. RMs work with sophisticated computer programs that carefully analyze these and other details. These programs will adjust fares right up to departure times. That said, RMs still have the latitude to adjust fares based on factors like special events planned for a destination and weather.

Ticket prices on high-trafficked routes change rapidly. The big price swings occur at 21 days, 14 days, 10 days, 7 days, and 4 days. Domestic fares may change four times daily. International fares change by the hour, if there’s heavy traffic on that specific route.

On highly competitive routes like New York to LA, airlines may have last minute sales to fill the plane if it's not very full. Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday are often the cheapest days to fly because business passengers don’t fly on those days.

RMs also offer 10-15 percent of their seats as award seats. Travelers who are flexible with dates or flight times can take advantage of these seats. Flights that are slow to fill up will offer award seating as the departure date approaches. RMs work hard and fast, but the rewards—monetary and bringing a smile to a traveler’s face—are worth it.

For an added perspective on airline Revenue Managers, check out this video:

Got any tips on Airline Revenue Managers? Share your comments in the section below.

Alex A. Kecskes has written hundreds of published articles on health/fitness, "green" issues, TV/film entertainment, restaurant reviews and many other topics. As a former Andy/Belding/One Show ad agency copywriter, he also writes web content, ads, brochures, sales letters, mailers and scripts for national B2B and B2C clients. Please see more of his blogs and view additional job postings on Nexxt.

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  • karen f
    karen f
    Airline Revenue Manager is really a hard task however it pays off for a lot of airline companies are needing this kind of staff to enhance and prosper in the field of airline including booking such as philippine airlines booking, discount assessing and a lot more.

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