This move is a key moment in our story. It’s a symbol of our growth and ambitions to grow together with our airline partners, helping them soar to new heights in the process.

Dohop, the European market leader for alternative interline solutions, has today announced it will now enable Norse Atlantic Airways and Thai Vietjet to offer seamless and connected journeys to their travellers.

Back in 2004, when Dohop was just in its infancy, we moved to our first office space. There were maybe four or five of us - very much a start-up size - and we were all excited to have our own official space. But it turned out that the space didn’t really feel quite right for us, so we didn’t stay there for long. Instead, we found an office space for start-ups, which felt a lot more like us. I remember the landlord of that space turning to me and saying, “Kristján, it’s a good thing you came here. All the companies that come through here become very successful.” 

And what do you know? He turned out to be right! We grew and continued to grow and soon we needed to find a bigger space. That’s when, in 2010, we moved to our headquarters in Reykjavik at Nóatun 17 (N17), and we stayed there for the better part of 13 years, renting more and more space until we ended up having an entire floor to ourselves.

When travel started to recover post-Covid, business picked up, and Dohop’s growth trajectory continued. Soon we realised that we would outgrow our offices in Noatun. The time had come to look around and find a new space that would give us a fresh start. 

We soon found that space in Katrinartun 4 (K4), located in Höfdatorg, an area close to downtown Reykjavik that many financial and IT companies call home. 

On moving day, there was a buzz in the air. The team came to our old offices early in the morning to pack our 13 years worth of furniture and memories. Everyone was excited for this new chapter, and we quickly loaded everything into the back of a moving van, and off we went to our new address - about 500 yards down the road. 

In the end, the entire moving process took us only five to six hours, and once unpacked at K4, we rewarded ourselves with pizza and beer.

When I initially saw K4, I wasn’t immediately hooked. It’s an open plan office, and I had some concerns because at N17, we had smaller rooms for the teams, which allowed us to forge close working relationships and even friendships, and I was worried that this would get lost in an open plan office. After our first two months at the new office, I am no longer worried about that. If anything, it feels like the teams are closer than ever, and communication and collaboration are more effective. It’s also a beautiful space for our customers and partners to enjoy when they visit.

Our move to K4 is an important new chapter for us, underscoring our commitment to growing with our airline partners and helping them expand and thrive. 

We are settling into our new space, and we can’t wait to see what the future holds for us. 

Here’s to the next chapter of growth at Dohop!

From N17 to K4 - A new chapter of growth for Dohop

You get together, regardless of who you are and what you usually do, and you come up with new and exciting ideas to make life easier in one way or another.

Our second Dohop Hackathon of the year was held last week. Let me paint the picture:

I’m an early riser, so when I don’t work remotely, I usually arrive at the office among the first. Usually, it is quiet (some days even too quiet in the winter time), and people trickle in between nine and ten o’clock. We do love our flexible working hours. On Hackathon days, the Dohop Hackathon committee is in early, making preparations for the three days ahead. Our everyday hero Hulda brings in brunch, and everyone comes in a little earlier than usual, chatting excitedly about their ideas and making sure everyone knows that their team is going to win this time around. 

The good mood, which is undoubtedly enhanced by the second breakfast, continues all throughout the day, from the kick-off meeting where rules are explained, through the early hours of hacking, all the way to the end of the day, when teams have already made progress on their projects. There is a competitive spirit going around, and everyone wants to present a project that will blow everyone’s mind, which has been previously achieved by a couple of projects, some of which have been taken further by Dohop. In a nutshell, that’s the goal: blow everyone’s mind.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with hackathons in general, allow me to introduce you to a slightly modified format that we have at Dohop every second and fourth quarter. Three days are dedicated to coming up with the above mentioned mind-blowing ideas and developing them to the point where they are functional or fit for use. Teams consist of three people, and they can be anyone from the company, which is great. 

Last time, I was working with a developer and an analyst, people I usually do not get in that much contact with while at work. At the time, we were working on something marketing related, which was completely new for them, but with their fresh eyes, we came up with something that would have been impossible for a group consisting purely of marketers. That’s the beauty of Hackathons: you get together, regardless of who you are and what you usually do, and you come up with new and exciting ideas to make life easier in one way or another. 

Yes, there is a competitive spirit, but at the end of the day, it’s about having a great time. After the project pitches and the voting, we went offsite to a location called Kex for some team-building, the award ceremony, and of course some drinks. At the award ceremony, we ran into a major problem: the trophies were safe and sound, at Dohop HQ. But fret not, the trophies were quickly replaced by half-empty Pepsi bottles, and our winners Arni, Teddi, Daniel, Elisabet, Kari, and Triggvi were just as happy to accept said half-filled bottles as they would have been with any trophy, at least for the picture. That’s dohopping, by the way: being meticulously prepared but able to adapt quickly should something go wrong. 

After the award ceremony, and with the help of pizza and beer, as usual, it fizzes out a bit: people are taking turns on karaoke, there’s a highly emotional foosball match happening, and for some reason Egill, the team captain of team blue, is ridiculously good at riding a mechanical bull that was randomly found in the next room. 

The commercial director of Dohop is Sarah Hanan, who enjoys traveling a lot—appropriate for a business that deals with travel technology.In celebration of her first anniversary at Dohop, we spoke with her during her last visit to the company’s headquarters in Iceland and asked her a few questions. 

In celebration of Sarah Hanan's first anniversary at Dohop, we spoke with her during her last visit to the company’s headquarters in Iceland.

Tell us about your career journey – where did it start? Which layovers have you made over the years?

My career began after graduating University and travelling the world, when I joined STA Travel as a Travel Consultant based in their flagship store on Euston Road in London. I loved that job – I was able to talk about travel all day and send customers on their dream trips. We worked under a lot of pressure, but with fantastic leadership and teamwork, we achieved brilliant results. I learned many lessons from that time that I still use today.

After some further travel and working abroad, I settled back in London and became excited about the technological innovations happening in the industry. I joined a company called Cheapflights which was at that time the pioneer in flight comparison. My 13 years there were filled with international growth, acquisitions, and new product development, ultimately leading to a successful sale to Booking Holdings in 2016. The most cherished memory of my time at Cheapflights is the collaborative culture that we created, we maybe didn’t realise it at the time, but it was very unique and pivotal to our success.

With itchy feet once again, I moved to Berlin in 2018 to join GoEuro (now Omio) as the Director of Partnerships, driving B2B distribution for their unrivaled breadth of global ground transportation. During my time here, I not only learned about the wonderful world of rail & bus, I also experienced the excitement and innovative thinking that can be created by working with a truly international group of colleagues.

I had crossed paths a few times with Dohop during my career and was always impressed by their approach & ambition. I knew that they were making progress with their suite of products to simplify transport connectivity and when I saw they were looking for a commercial lead, I wanted to get involved.

It’s been one year since you joined – what’s something you learned this year?

Apart from a whole new collection of aviation related 3 letter acronyms, I have learned more than ever about the importance of communication. Working remotely with a new team, many of whom have not been able to meet in 2 years, has shown me how critical it is to keep channels of communication open and be adaptable to when and how they want to talk.

Additionally, I have been reminded of the importance of persistence and patience during the sales process. Airlines can be complex organisations with many dependencies, and one of the reasons they choose Dohop is because we can demonstrate that we can be flexible with requirements and timelines to ensure we deliver a true partnership for the long term.

Tell us something unexpected about working at Dohop!

That I’m utterly hopeless at pronouncing Icelandic names!

With several years of experience in management, how do you think your management style has changed over the years?

I think experience and working for some truly inspirational leaders over the years helps to provide you with the ability and tools to adapt your approach to suit the individual or team you are managing. To succeed and innovate, I think building a truly diverse team, including a range of nationalities, genders, and skill sets is essential. Although understanding what makes people tick can be challenging and takes time, it’s hugely rewarding when you start to see results. 

What has been the most difficult challenge at Dohop for you so far?

The aviation industry is very big, but also very small! In some ways, I have had to start from scratch and work hard to establish myself in a sector that can often be very close-knit. This will always remain a work in progress, but after a very busy 12 months of industry events & networking, I am making some headway.

What is your favorite achievement at Dohop so far?

Well….we have some VERY exciting new airline partners launching soon that I cannot talk about yet. So instead, I will say that bringing 25 airlines to Iceland for our hugely successful inaugural Partner Event was a very proud moment for everyone on the team.

What do you like to do in your free time?

Travel…..the list gets longer and time gets shorter!

Dohop is a dog-friendly office, and somehow the list of Dohop dogs keeps getting longer. What are your dogs’ names?

What’s something you can’t live without?

PG Tips tea bags come everywhere with me.

You recently starred in a film – tell us about that!

Yes, I was in a Netflix movie called Munich: The Edge of War. I had a very important part in an airport scene (appropriately) that lasted for about 0.02 seconds.

You regularly travel to Iceland to come to Dohop HQ – what’s your favourite thing about Iceland / Reykjavik?

It may sound cliché, but it is the people. Check out the Icelandverse if you don’t believe me.

Sarah Hanan on overseeing Dohop’s commercial initiatives and the importance of perseverance

Worldwide by easyJet was launched in September 2017. It allows easyJet to sell connecting flights across their own network and also connections to partner airlines. Initially launched with only two partners, Norwegian and WestJet, the product has grown to include partner airline Aurigny, a regional airline servicing Guernsey in the UK, and international flag carriers such as Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific and Emirates.

As easyJet’s network has grown, other airlines, especially long-haul carriers, have begun to show interest in partnering with them to provide their customers with access to onward connections from their destinations. This allows easyJet, in turn, to cater to a market they didn’t have access to before without the additional cost and complexity of a long-haul operation.

easyJet is a ticketless carrier with a proprietary reservation system and thus there was no obvious technological solution for how to display and sell connections to a potential partner carrier or even sell connections across the easyJet network. Furthermore, easyJet wanted to make sure that these connections would provide a comparable yield to the point to point flights typically sold on easyJet.com, so ancillaries were a key element to include.

“We have been delighted with the appetite of partner airlines to expand Worldwide across our network thanks to our reputation for great value fares, excellent onboard service and our strong positions at Europe’s leading airports and we continue to broaden our focus to offer this unique connecting service at more of our biggest airports.” says Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet.

The first piece of the puzzle is the technology required to surface the additional O&Ds created by combining the networks of two airlines and allowing those to be booked in a single, seamless checkout process for the customer. Dohop’s technology is PSS agnostic which means that any airline can be integrated into the Dohop ecosystem, thus making Dohop the essential layer that connects the two airlines.

Because there are two confirmations being issued by the two airlines for a single connected journey, the key missing link is the protected connection. Normally, a customer with two separate tickets experiencing am inbound flight delay would be exposed to losing their onward connection and having to buy a new ticket. Our protected connection service is provided by our multilingual 24/7 call center, available via phone, chat, and email. In the case of a missed connection, the passenger is provided with a new ticket to their final destination.

At the point of a customer booking, each airline issues their respective confirmation emails to the customer and receives immediate payment for their part of the journey. Both bookings are through the airline’s direct channel and the airlines own the customer relationship. Dohop’s solution also allows any ancillary to be sold during the booking process along with providing full seat maps for both carriers. Dohop also provides the ability to offer a full suite of fare families and fare classes as required.

Dohop’s technology can instantly enable connections over any overlapping points in the networks of two airlines looking to build a partnership. easyJet started by connecting only over Gatwick Airport but now connects at over 170 airports across Europe.

Dohop can facilitate connections to any partner airline or within an airline’s own network. easyJet started by connecting their own flights and also WestJet and Norwegian and now this has been extended to a total of 17 partners.

Distribution is key. Leveraging the airline’s existing commercial agreements with the major global metasearch players, Dohop’s pre-built connection to Google Flights, Skyscanner, and Kayak provides plenty of distribution to the connecting flights.

easyJet’s success factors for expanding their network through the Worldwide offering.

Deutsche Bahn, Germany’s national railroad operator is in a unique position as a state-owned national rail company actively supporting Germany’s climate goals.

Their primary objectives have long focused on sustainability and environmentally friendly travel. As one of the largest users of green electricity, Deutsche Bahn has been operating electrically powered ICE and IC/EC trains with 100% green electricity since 2018. 

Due to the increased focus on sustainability in Germany, Deutsche Bahn is one of the world’s front-runners in air-to-rail passenger transportation.

As a result of climate change objectives and the high taxation of domestic flights within Germany, airlines have been urged to reevaluate their short-haul and sustainability strategies, making intermodal collaboration more advantageous.

Airlines can maintain their competitiveness and support an environmentally friendly strategy while also reducing the carbon footprint of their passengers by working with Deutsche Bahn.

Head of Intermodal Cooperations at Deutsche Bahn

“Intermodal connections are very important to us. We want to enable joint offers with our partners to provide passengers with a seamless and hassle-free experience when combining modes of transport, in our case especially the air-to-rail or rail-to-air mode. A carbon neutral journey to and from the airport is our general aim for the customer, and for that we need to give the travellers an alternative offer to shorthaul domestic flights within Germany.”

A NEW WAY OF INTERMODAL TICKETING, POWERED BY DOHOP

In 2021, Deutsche Bahn and easyJet joined forces to offer air-to-rail connectivity. With the help of Dohop’s API-based solution, Deutsche Bahn can sell combined air and rail services, including scheduled services, seat maps, ancillaries, and more in a single booking process, to and from all 5.600 German railway stations.

“We started this innovative partnership between ourselves, easyJet and Dohop 2 years ago, right in the pandemic. This is the newest intermodal cooperation model we have in place. It’s fully dynamic, it’s scaleable, it’s theoretically available from all our 5600 railway stations, so it’s a state of the art solution, no GDS involved which makes the cost side very interesting especially for low-cost carriers. We are very happy with the solution and we are looking forward to continue to offer it to passengers.”

The Dohop-powered solution differs from the traditional interline agreements that have been powering a similar partnership between Deutsche Bahn and Lufthansa for years.

It is PSS agnostic which means that any airline, including legacy and low-cost carriers, can be connected without the need for an interline or codesharing agreement, with the added convenience of a streamlined booking process and increased accessibility to locations throughout Germany for the benefit of passengers. 

The benefits for airlines are also significant. In addition to giving their customers more flexibility and a more personalized travel experience, airlines benefit from expanding their reach in catchment areas near airports.

So, two of Dohop’s most forward-thinking airline partners have started intermodal partnerships with the German rail operator: easyJet and Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling.

“There is strong demand for intermodal and that’s why we are creating more and more offers for our partners and international airlines to enlarge their catchment areas and to fill up their flights with passengers from all over Germany, and of course we are looking for new target groups and new customers who are considering continuing their journey by train.”

Deutsche Bahn has noted several benefits from operating the intermodal solution offered by Dohop. Dohop’s solution makes use of the Deutsche Bahn API, making it viable, affordable, and easy to integrate.

Using already-existing sales logic from Deutsche Bahn and easyJet, the partnership was facilitated without the need for new standards. Additionally, the scalability can accommodate all stations, connections, upsells, and intricate multi-stop connections. No additional resources are needed from Deutsche Bahn or easyJet as the mandatory Dohop connection service handles all irregular cases in the event of delays and cancellations.

The collaboration was made possible without the need for lengthy traditional interlining or codesharing agreements.

The vision for the future is clear and flexibility is a big part of it.

“I believe we will see fully dynamic intermodal offers in the future, with more than two modes of transport, especially the first or last mile, available on all existing and new sales channels, and of course the passenger must be aware of it through a digital solution.”

Intermodal into the future. Spearheading intermodal passenger transport, Deutsche Bahn leverages new technology to offer carbon-neutral, seamless experiences.

From N17 to K4 - A new chapter of growth for Dohop

Related stories

Dohop 22Q4 Hackathon

Sarah Hanan on overseeing Dohop’s commercial initiatives and the importance of perseverance

easyJet’s success factors for expanding their network through the Worldwide offering.