As the U.S. Justice Dept. continues to probe Google's pending ITA Software acquisition, Google has conducted an extensive series of meetings with airlines and online travel agencies over the last two months, according to a person close to the situation.
One consistent theme in these meetings is that Google has assured ITA Software customers that it would continue to license ITA's fare pricing and shopping solution, QPX, and has no interest in becoming an OTA and processing travel transactions.
In that regard, the source says there is no truth to the report that Google is considering buying European OTA Opodo from Amadeus.
Such a move, which makes little strategic sense for Google and would complicate Google's efforts to steer the ITA deal through the Justice Dept.
Google isn't looking at Opodo as an acquisition candidate and has had no talks with Amadeus on the subject, the source says.
Meanwhile, in Google's face to face meetings with airlines and OTAs about ITA, Google has reassured ITA customers that it would honor existing contracts and wants to develop new tools to drive more traffic and leads to ITA customers.
In the meetings, Google hasn't committed to renewing ITA's contracts when their terms expire -- a key concern of some of ITA's customers -- because it would be unwise to pre-commit to terms and conditions, the source says.
The source adds that Google has been "pretty encouraged" by the round of meetings.