Datalex, the Dublin-based travel retail software company, has signed up Air Macau for its China shopping and pricing product, which is aimed at making it easy and fast to find and book seats in that market.
Air Macau is adopting the product as it looks to “achieve its digital retail ambitions, advance its ecommerce functionality and facilitate a superior shopping experience with more choice, transparency and ease of use”, according to Datalex.
Macau, a semi-autonomous region on the south coast of China, reclaimed its crown as the world’s top gambling hub from Las Vegas in the first half of this year, after China lifted its zero-Covid policies. Macau’s gross gambling revenue in the first half of this year reached nearly $10 billion (€9.3 billion), compared with Nevada’s $7.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported in August, citing official figures from the two locations.
“This is a significant milestone for Datalex. Since the onset of Covid, we have been tailoring a shopping and pricing solution with Air China to develop a product that is specific to the features of that market,” said Bryan Porter, chief revenue officer at Datalex.
The deal comes less than a week after budget carrier easyJet’s migration to Datalex’s merchandiser product went live. The UK-based airline chose Datalex in September 2022 to help drive its digital retail strategy.
[ Datalex signs new digital transformation deal with Aer LingusOpens in new window ]
Datalex, which was hit by accounting issues in 2019 and the pandemic the following year, said in September it had secured a new €5 million credit facility from a company controlled by its main shareholder, Dermot Desmond, as it continues to explore alternative fundraising options.
The company already had €10 million of high-cost loans from Mr Desmond’s Tireragh vehicle before signing up to the new facility. The loans currently carry an interest rate of 18 per cent and are due to be repaid by the end of next year.
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