Apparatus and method of allocating flight inventory resources based on the current market value

A computer-implemented method for determining whether to allocate a flight inventory resource, comprising:

• storing current market prices for flight inventory resources;
• storing historical information on past market transactions of the flight inventory resources;
• determining allocated and unallocated flight inventory resources;
• forecasting a demand for the unallocated flight inventory resources based on the stored historical information;
• computing a variation in the demand for the unallocated flight inventory resources based on the stored historical information;
• deriving an optimal market price for the flight inventory resources based on the forecasted demand and the computed variation in the demand for the unallocated flight inventory resources;
• comparing the stored current market price of the flight inventory resource with the derived optimal market price;
• and
• allocating the flight inventory resource to a customer based upon the comparison between the stored current market price of the flight inventory resource and the derived optimal market price.

A system for determining whether to allocate a flight inventory resource, the system comprising:

• a first information repository for storing current inventory data describing flight inventory resources currently available for allocation to a customer, wherein the inventory data includes a current market price for each flight inventory resource;
• a second information repository for storing historical information on past market transactions of the flight inventory resources;
• a flight inventory value enhancer, coupled to both the first information repository and the second information repository, for calculating the optimal market price of each flight inventory resource using a forecasted demand and a variation in demand, each determined from the historical information stored in the second information repository;
• and
• a comparator configured to compare the stored current market price of the flight inventory resource with the calculated optimal market price to determine whether to allocate to the customer the flight inventory resource.