Datalex and Brussels Airlines, Amadeus and RBS, Anite and Neilson, and more

This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel SYSTEMS in tourism and hospitality for March 2014.

Monday 31 March 2014:

Datalex scoops Brussels Airlines for extras brief

• The Ireland-based travel technology company will have its Travel Distribution Platform used by the Belgian carrier to boost its ability to personalise offers to passengers as well as operate its online ticket sales and purchase of ancillary products. The carrier plans to launch the platform later in 2014. 

Amadeus, RBS and Continuum Commerce Solutions in currency tie-up

• The trio will work together to produce what is being touted as a "multi-currency payment" system. When built the product will integrate into the existing Amadeus Payment Platform and allow merchants to automatically settle fees in their home currency. Amadeus says "merchants will have the ability to derive a new revenue stream through an automated, expert management of cross currency payments". RBS's FXmicropay will be used as part of the partnership.

Anite wins Neilson Active Holidays for technology overhaul

• The multi-year deal will see Anite provide its @COM reservation system to Neilson, including Mobile Contracting and Brochure Pricing systems. The move follows Neilson's separation from the Thomas Cook Group.

Wednesday 26 March 2014:

Trekksoft signs with Hotelplan Suisse

• The technology agreement between the tours and activity provider and HotelPlan will begin with a pilot phase to allow consumers to secure in-destination activities on booking confirmation pages and from CRM email messages. A further phase will put products into the booking flow of dynamic packaging systems of online travel agencies.

Amadeus creates new airport tech system

• The Amadeus Airport Common Use Service (ACUS) is being touted as a "next-gen" platform to oversee and manage all passenger processing functions and will include a connection to all airline departure control systems and airport applications, 4G connectivity and SaaS data centre.

Tuesday 25 March 2014:

Indian Railway reports record high booking number

• IRCTC, the online train reservation service in India has reported an all-time-high single day bookings of 580,000 tickets on March 19, 2014. Prior to this, the service sold 572,000 tickets on September 2, 2013. Currently, the site generates daily transactions worth about $9 million. Due to the increased load on the site during tatkal reservations (last minute), IRCTC recently launched 'IRCTC Lite', a simplified version of the service that gets activated from 10 am to 12 pm everyday.

Datalex reports double-digit revenue gains

• Datalex, a provider of ecommerce tools, has reported a rise in net profits (up 43%, to €1.1 million) and revenue (up 19%, to €27.5 million) for the year to the end of December.

Wednesday 13 March 2014:

Vayant plots LCC route with Pyton

• The deal between the pair means Vayant-connected organisations will be able to search both low cost and legacy carriers, using Pyton's Elsy Arres API. The technology taps around 80 LCCs and handles bookings on each carrier's system. Vayant also recently signed Australian online flight service Jetabroad.

Triometric wins Hotelbeds for analytics intelligence

• The UK-based technology provider will work with the TUI-owned business using its Web Services Analyzer product to monitor performance of its web services in real time, including analysing in and outbound XML messages on a daily basis. 

Travelport signs tech deal with IATI

• A multi-year renewal will see the Turkish online systems provider use the Smartpoint agency desktop and Universal API tools.

Sunday 9 March 2014

Honeywell Aerospace and Gogo to implement high-speed broadband

• Both the companies are collaborating with satellite giant Inmarsat to implement a global high-speed broadband for the skies - called as Global Xpress (GX) Aviation network. Honeywell Aerospace Asia Pacific says in-flight wifi could generate $2.8 billion for the company alone over the next 20 years. It also estimates that around 7-8% of airlines currently offer wifi, but this number is expected to grow to 25% by 2018.

Emirates Palace Abu Dhabi to offer gigabit wifi

• UAE-based IT service company, MDS UAE guided the hotel in selecting (among others) Aruba Networks’ solution to offer gigabit wireless connectivity to hotel guests. The hotel believes that this move would meet its guests high expectations for the next four to five years. The new system can be controlled centrally to make rapid changes to the network and its security settings.

Malaysia Airlines to deploy Ramco Systems' solutions

• The five-year deal between the companies will enable the airline implement suite of critical enterprise-wide engineering solutions including aircraft maintenance, maintenance service sales, operational, human resources and financial functions.

Monday 3 March 2014

South Africa Travel Online accepts bitcoins

• In an effort to become the first South African travel agency to sell a flight for bitcoins, the company has launched a contest where it asks users to mention why they should be the first South African to book a flight using bitcoins, and the airline they would like to fly with, along with the reason. The winner of this contest will be allowed to book a flight (only) using bitcoins. The company will give $92.5 (Rand 1000) worth travel voucher to the winner. This voucher can be used to book a flight through South Africa Travel Online.

Dubai taxis to offer free Wifi

• By the end of 2014, all taxis in Dubai will offer free wifi service as part of a push to create a smart city. Users can just enter the taxi and start using wifi. The service is already available in 155 Hala Taxis across the city.

Indian Railways launches SMS facility for ticket status change

• The new feature rollout from Indian Railways will send SMS to travellers whenever their ticket status changes (for example, from waitlist to confirmed). Since a large majority of Indians travel by train, every new feature by the Railway creates an impact among travellers. This free-to-use SMS alert service gets activated five days before the journey date. The Railway estimates that a total of 400,000 SMSs will be sent everyday. The Railway worked with technical service providers Mahindra Comiva and Velti System and ensured there is no impact in the normal functioning of backend passenger reservation system - CONCERT.

NB: Send links or releases for travel devices direct to Tnooz via email.

NB2: Travel systems image via Shutterstock.