Munich Startup: When we last spoke in 2017, you said that Flyla needed to get the high demand under control. Were you able to achieve this goal?
Ben Shaw, CEO at Flyla: At the time, to satisfy demand, we had built a student travel portal: many partners for a comprehensive offering. This quickly led to our first 12,000 users, to whom we offered flight and hotel deals.
Flyla: Awakened from Corona hibernation
Munich Startup: And then COVID-19 struck. What obstacles did you encounter along the way—besides the pandemic?
Ben Shaw: In the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, no one knew how long the crisis would last. We were dealing with many refunds, but at the same time, we were at a peak in bookings. Putting Flyla into a COVID-19 hibernation was therefore necessary. But it was indeed difficult for us.
At the beginning of last year, we relaunched Flyla: first with a new team. Then with new partnerships, a new booking process, and finally, a new marketing approach. All of this took time.
Added value for customers and airlines
Munich Startup: How has your solution evolved?
Ben Shaw: While the travel market is highly competitive, there are some niches that suffer from a lack of transparency and where incredible added value can be created for customers.
One of these niches is Student flightsMany students are unaware that a large proportion of airlines—over 70 percent in Europe—already have student programs. These often date back to the days when airlines marketed specifically to travel agencies and offered special rates to travel agencies located near universities to attract students.
However, since only a few airlines have addressed this issue for some time, most of these fares aren't particularly attractive or competitive. There are even isolated cases where the student fare is more expensive than the standard fare.
Our approach is therefore different. We have now integrated almost every airline that offers student fares on Flyla.com (for example, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, or KLM). And we even go a step further and enable airlines to consider this target group for what is known as load factor optimization. This means that instead of simply offering a 2 percent discount on each seat, airlines can offer cheap seats for students shortly before departure on routes that are often less busy. The standard price can still rise, generating profits for the airlines. This way, fewer seats remain empty and students are given the opportunity, within their means, to fill the otherwise empty seats.
In addition to Eurowings, we are now using this exact model together with Norwegian, SAS and ITA to meet the demand for affordable flights among students.
Higher margin through CO2-Compensation
Munich Startup: And what does it look like financially with you?
Ben Shaw: It is not unusual for a Online travel portal for flight sales only earns a few cents. That our added value extends beyond flight sales to other travel partners – with embedded student authentication and automatic CO2Compensation, in contrast, allows us to achieve a significantly higher take rate. We benefit from the particularly positive environment in the travel industry and the desire of many to take a break, especially now that travel is possible again.
Munich Startup: What learnings have you as a founding team learned so far?
Ben Shaw: The last few months have been filled with incredible new learnings:
- Our new design was well received,
- Integration of additional payment options including Paypal has led to further customer growth,
- Our social media strategy now accounts for a third of our growth,
- because we use CO2 is automatically compensated, many of our customers do not shy away from taking domestic flights, which are not only up to 80 percent cheaper than the standard price, but also more comfortable and, above all, faster than the train.
Flyla: “Munich helped us incredibly”
Munich Startup: What role has the Munich ecosystem played in your journey so far?
Ben Shaw: Munich has helped us tremendously. We are sister companies with the Vitolus Group, which, after successfully helping to combat the pandemic with its testing and vaccination services, is now driving forward other healthcare topics such as outpatient care and the procurement of medical supplies. Office in Schwanthalerstraße has become a hotspot for new ideas and startup meetings – including the team from LotaroAnd, of course, our networks, starting with LMU and TUM, have given us active support.
Munich Startup: What milestones are you working towards next?
Ben Shaw: We've expanded our offerings. There are more affordable student tickets available than ever before. Now it's all about further expanding the business, attracting more partners to our model, and making the student flight market more transparent than ever before.
