Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs - June 2011

Product news, releases, projects and more from the global distribution systems during June 2011 - all here, in one easy read.

Most recent updates first...

Thursday 30 June 2011:

Amadeus launches two rail technology solutions for travel agents. The pair - Amadeus Agent Track and Amadeus Web Services Track - are aimed at desktop and online travel agencies respectively, giving them search, availability and booking tools for Amadeus's existing rail suppliers.
Sabre builds hotel portfolio with SoftHotel acquisition [full story]
Travelport unveils major leisure agent push with Rooms and More [full story]
Airline direct-connect — Coping with content fragmentation [video] [full story]
Getting Extreme, Amadeus rolls out Affinity Shopper to online travel agency [full story]
Court: If Sabre biases American Airlines flights, then airline can seek injunction [full story]
A distribution view — If airlines were TV channels [full story]

Tuesday 22 June 2011:

Luxury hotel guide and booking service Mr & Mrs Smith has selected eNett for its payment technology. The Travelport-owned system will provide its vNett virtual card solution to facilitate payments for pre-paid hotel bookings and loyalty scheme redemptions to hotels.
Five reasons why the airline merchandising saga is maturing

Friday 20 June 2011:

Travelport to provide GDS facilities to Maltese travel agencies following the end of a distribution agreement with Air Malta. Previously the airline acted as a distributor of Worldspan fares into local agencies, but Travelport has decided to expand the Italian hub for Southern Europe to include the island directly. This move follows similar efforts in Greece and Cyprus earlier this year.

Thursday 16 June 2011:

How mobile will transform the future of air travel [INFOGRAPHIC] [full story]
Making the case for open APIs in travel [VIDEO] [full story]
Sabre and ReviewPro unite to bring social media monitoring tools to hotels [full story]
Travelport: Open APIs – we are working on it [full story]
Sabre debuts social media suite with Facebook bookings for hotels [full story]

Friday 10 June 2011:

Travelport signs partnership agreement with the Russian Internet Travel Services Association (ITSA). The pair will collaborate to promote growth and support the online travel industry in Russia. ITSA also represents online agencies in the country to help negotiate rates with suppliers.
Tnooz-Amadeus FREE webinar: 2011 – Where we’ve been, where we’re going [full story]
Amadeus report: Wanted – IT pathfinders to sort out hotel technology [full story]

Wednesday 8 June 2011:

Hilton and Sabre Hospitality Solutions renew global distribution agreement. Under the deal, Hilton's 3,700 hotels in 82 countries will be made available to Sabre-connected agents worldwide, as well as tapping into the wider SHS marketing machine.
Travelport-run payment tech provider eNett unveils agreement with Hotelzon International. The online corporate booking firm will use eNett's vNett virtual card platform within its existing booking system. vNett uses a single-transaction MasterCard virtual account number to fulfil bookings for customers.

Monday 6 June 2011:

Travelport unveils new, long-term agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group. The deal gives Worldspan and Galileo-subscribed agents access to 4,500 properties around the world and also sees IHG utilise Travelport's Best Available Rate, Complete Pricing Plus and XML Pro systems.
Four issues to ponder regarding airline ancillary revenue [full story]
Travelport joins Sabre in ending Farelogix developer agreements [full story]

Thursday 2 June 2011:

Amadeus and Accor expand distribution agreement to cover additional brands. The deal sees Motel 6 and Studio 6 - around 1,100 properties - included in the system for agents to search and book properties. The total number of hotel properties on Amadeus is now 90,000 worldwide.
Travelport claims victory as court tells American Airlines to put fares on Orbitz [full story]
Sabre files antitrust claim against American Airlines in Travelport suit [full story]

Previous GDS updates:

Amadeus