Travelport Extends Customized Offers, Welcomes 150 Airlines On Board

Panel discussion at the CAPA Summit 2016, Dublin

By Maria Paravantes in Dublin

Travel commerce platform leader Travelport announced today at the CAPA Airlines in Transition Summit held in Dublin, that 150 airlines have joined its system and can now make customized or personalised offers to both individual travel agencies or corporations.

“We are listening attentively to our airline customers and their changing needs in the distribution of their products whilst ensuring that our travel agency customer efficiency remains optimised. The new developments that enable personalised, tailored offers to individual corporations and travel agencies illustrate the further execution of our strategy to change our relationship with airlines to deliver higher value,” explained Derek Sharp, Travelport senior VP and MD for air commerce.

Sitting on a panel on “Disruption: Have Airlines Got a Future” earlier today, Mr Sharp stressed the need to ensure that clients get the most out of the tools and solutions available, adding that the sheer speed of change in the travel environment is calling for all peripheral services and providers to team up and “squeeze all the know-how and experience into a mobile environment”. He pointed in two main directions: targeting and more specific promotionals.

Aggregated shopping, ancillary services and Travelport Rich Content and Branding, complete with Fares Families, make up the listed company’s merchandising suite aimed at changing the way airlines deliver and display their products to travel agents.

 A further goal is through Travelport’s technology and solutions to drive increased revenues per seat and to detail the differentiated products and services on offer. Travelport recently welcomed British Airways, Iberia, SAS and JetBlue to the roster of airlines using Rich Content and Branding including Fares Families.

Two examples of Travelport’s latest specialization includes providing destination-based travel agents the chance to offer customers booking business class flights a limo service to the airport or giving economy customers in a given destination the chance to pay to use the airline’s business class lounge at the airport in effect “giving customers the chance to buy the way they want to and the freedom to do so”, Mr Sharp said.

Active in 180 countries, Travelport’s 2015 net revenue came to over $2.2 billion. Providing distribution, technology, payment, mobile and other solutions for the global travel and tourism industry, Travelport recently teamed up with Mobile Travel Technologies Ltd (MTT), which brings airlines, hotels, corporate travel management companies and travel agencies closer to their customers through tailored mobile services, including apps, mobile web and intelligent mobile messaging with the ultimate goal to engage.