Travelport recently released revision 4 of its e-Pricing airline shopping and faring tool and President and CEO Jeff Clarke says e-Pricing will continue to compete with ITA Software'sQPX solution despite Google's pending acquisition of the Cambridge, Mass., company.
Clarke, speaking during Travelport's second quarter earnings call, said the fact that Google plans to spend $700 million to acquire ITA represents an endorsement of the growth potential and attractiveness of the travel industry.
He said e-Pricing, which doesn't get all the publicity that QPX does, competes head-to-head with the ITA solution and actually has more of a global footprint.
Clarke noted that e-Pricing powers shopping and pricing for Priceline, ebookers, WebJet, Delta, Emirates, American Express and HRG, among others.
United Airlines, Clarke notes, splits its allegiances as the airline uses ITA's QPX for shopping functionalities and Travelport's e-Pricing handles the faring.
The pending Google purchase of ITA Software is "a good thing," Clarke says, as Google has publicly stated its intent is to improve search results for online travel agencies and suppliers and vows not to get involved with transaction fulfillment.
Clarke said Travelport will continue to compete with Google-ITA and noted that Travelport just released revision 4 of e-Pricing, a software upgrade that the company says is geared to provide "faster search, lower fares and larger result sets."
On the metasearch front, where ITA is particularly strong, Clarke said Travelport's e-Pricing just picked up a new metasearch client, with the name to be revealed in a few weeks.
The development occurs, too, as Amadeus gears up to renew its competitive juices with an upgraded shopping and pricing tool.
Meanwhile, asked about Travelport's IPO prospects in the wake of its withdrawn effort in London in February, Clarke said the company will continue to evaluate capital markets and all possible exits.
Asked whether Travelport was leaning toward an offering in London or New York, Clarke said the company will look at the best markets.
Clarke was also asked about the financials involved in recent full-content agreement extensions with merger partners Continental Airlines and United Airlines.
He declined to get into the specifics of the United and Continental agreements, which run through 2013, but said overall -- including all global agreements signed or in the pipeline -- Travelport expects revenue per segment to be flat or to increase in the low-single digits through the rest of 2010 and into 2011.
Clarke explained that revenue per segment goes well beyond booking fees from airlines and contains other revenue-producing elements.
For the second quarter, Travelport's adjusted EBITDA declined 2% to $176 million, on a 1% net revenue increase to $598 million.