Significant detail emerging around the new pan-European online travel agency by Thomas Cook as Travelport appears to have got the nod as its GDS.
An announcement has yet to be made but a Thomas Cook official confirmed today that Travelport will be retained as the online travel agency's preferred GDS partner.
The news may come as a bit of a blow to Amadeus after the Spain-based GDS announced only yesterday that a major extension to its existing Thomas Cook tour operating division's global distribution deal had been agreed.
Amadeus's new five-year agreement with Thomas Cook sees five countries added to the existing nine it already handled - all countries on the Amadeus system, with the exception of India and Egypt, are in Europe.
The full list: Denmark, Finland Norway and Sweden. Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Netherlands and Poland.
So despite the vast coverage and spread around Europe with its existing GDS provision, Thomas Cook has opted to run the OTA from within Travelport.
Possibly coincidental but Thomas Cook uses Travelport for operations in the UK and Ireland and the online travel agency is due to be based in London.
Amadeus would not comment on the OTA element of its relationship with Thomas Cook.
The news comes after Thomas Cook announced in June 2010 that it would consider acquiring other businesses in order to achieve its ambitions of creating a top European OTA within three years.