Flight Centre Travel Group has acquired a majority stake in TPConnects Technologies after an initial investment for a 22% stake two years ago.
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but Flight Centre now owns 70% of the Dubai-based business.
The company has been working with TPConnects (TPC) since 2019 says that the NDC specialist has been at “the forefront of ongoing changes to traditional distribution models.”
TPC enables travel agents to access NDC content in a number of including an API and agency portal.
It also develops NDC and order management technology for airlines.
Melanie Waters-Ryan, Flight Centre’s CEO of leisure and supply, says: “Within this ever-changing distribution landscape, we have taken proactive steps to complement our GDS partnerships and ensure we can source and deliver the best content to our leisure and corporate customers globally by investing in TPC.
“TPC has been at the heart of the evolution in airfare distribution during the past decade, is now engrained in our business and is integral to the new operating systems and platforms we are delivering in both the leisure and corporate sectors.
“By investing further in the business, we have greater influence over future developments and the product’s ongoing evolution, while ensuring we continue to deliver the widest choice of airfares to our customers. Fast-tracking future developments will also provide FLT with a better opportunity to be ahead of our competitors’ comparable solutions.”
TPConnect founders Rajendran Vellapalath and Praveen Kumar will remain involved in the business and become part of a new TPC board.
Flight Centre has made a string of investments in recent years including Shep late last year and chatbot Sam in 2019.
In its recent earnings report the company, whose brands include FCM and Corporate Traveler, attributed its growth and recovery to its focus on technology.