Partnerships in 2022

Impressive growth, industry recognition, improved customer experience, investment, and new and strengthened partnerships

Kiwi.com has been steadily building out their relationships with partners in various dimensions, with partnerships in place both within and outside the travel ecosystem. These include more than a hundred direct integrated airline partnerships and around 600 airlines via booking partners and global distribution systems. 2022 was not an exception.

While the company was securing and strengthening partnerships with top airline players, including AirAsia, Spirit, and Air Arabia, there was also some time for reflection and recognition.  The company secured shortlist positions in both the Skift IDEA Awards and the Travolution Awards, was nominated for “Best Transportation Website” by Travelmole, and came in second among Frommer’s top 10 airfare search sites. 

Spring 2022 marked a mass return of travel. Kiwi.com was rapidly outgrowing its pre-pandemic numbers and quickly moved on to breaking all time booking records, with more than 80,000 seats sold in a single day. Following this positive period of growth, in June 2022, the company secured a 100 million EUR investment to further bolster its position in the global travel industry. 

Airlines and airports

The year also showed promising developments with partnerships, integrating Spirit Airline’s New Distribution Capability (NDC), enabling the company to source fares and other relevant offers directly from the airline with IATA certification. The company strengthened its partnership with the Middle East and North Africa’s first and largest low-cost carrier (LCC), Air Arabia Group, implementing Air Arabia Abu Dhabi’s API.

Standalone cooperation with airports was also not to be missed. In 2022 Marseille Provence Airport partnered with Kiwi.com to provide a self-connect service for passengers traveling through the airport. 

Tourism boards

Kiwi.com joined forces with SEA Airports of Milan and SACBO (Bergamo Airport), Milan Municipality, Lombardy Region, and ENIT, the National Italian Tourism Agency, to boost passenger traffic from North America and later in the year from selected European countries. The three-month destination campaign “Land in Beauty” inspired travelers to explore Milan and the whole region of Lombardy. 

Having previously partnered with Visit Portugal in 2021 to promote the European destination, boost awareness, and bring in more travelers, the companies re-introduced the campaign in the summer of 2022 to increase traveler traffic to Portugal, including marketing channels activation and ticket discounts. 

Travel info and payment providers

Kiwi.com brought an improved product to customers keen to travel by partnering with global travel rules and documentation provider Sherpa°. The cooperation introduced changes to Kiwi.com website, providing full visa information for international travelers, including the direct application of eVisas. The company did not forget about eager student travelers and partnered with GTS Alive, the exclusive issuer of ISIC in multiple countries to support students with their travel plans by offering discounts for bookings.

Financial super-app Revolut and Kiwi.com joined forces to incentivize travel by offering cashback and free access to a Revolut Premium account. Later that year, the company organized an exciting contest in cooperation with Visa, where holders of Visa payment cards could book travel with Kiwi.com and win 3500 EUR. 

In the shocking light of the war in Ukraine, Kiwi.com joined efforts with Visit Ukraine to provide Ukrainians abroad with travel options. By implementing Kiwi.com’s technology widget, VisitUkraine aimed to offer 6 million Ukrainians, who were forced to flee, the most affordable travel tickets to get to their final destination anywhere in the world.

B2B platform Tequila

Last year Kiwi.com saw many new features and updates brought to its B2B and B2B2C partners cooperating through an online B2B Platform, Tequila, sharing with partners access to Kiwi.com’s travel content, technology, and services. In 2022 the number of partners using the platform has increased by 2.5k, making the new total of more than 19.2k partners connected through Tequila. 

In 2022, Kiwi.com implemented further features within Tequila to provide partners with better support and quicker resolutions, including bulk request for more than one case, seating API for easier seat requests, and Paid Guarantee API, allowing guarantee processes to run through API, saving costs and time for partners. 

Reliable support

Additionally in 2022, Kiwi.com has strengthened the B2B support of its partners, increasing team support globally by 50%. The company hosted the first Key Partner Visit at their headquarters in Brno, shifting from the exclusively online cooperation established during the pandemic. 

Thanks to introducing deeper insights towards B2B CS operations into the sales lifecycle, Kiwi.com was able to better support new potential leads and effectively onboard partners, avoiding bottlenecks and sharing insights into key metrics surrounding contact ratio, refunds, and Kiwi.com Guarantee.

Do you want to become a partner of Kiwi.com and strengthen your business model in 2023? Don’t hesitate to contact our Business Development team via the contact form below.