Travelport has acquired one of its distributors, Galileo Japan, from a consortium of airlines.
The technology company, which runs one of the world's global distribution systems, will build a fresh Travelport Japan entity that will continue to offer agencies a choice of the Apollo or Worldspan platforms.
Chief executive Gordon Wilson said in a statement:
"This is a tuck-in acquisition of a business we know well and have worked with for three decades. The decision to transform from a distribution franchise to a wholly owned operation is commensurate with our goals to further expand our successful business across Asia.”
Travelport says it has a market-leading position in that it processes "nearly half of all international air bookings made by Japanese travel agencies." That's a milestone for a company that in 2012 created a new GDS in Japan as part of an agreement with the JAL-run AXESS system.
According to a statement, "all former Galileo Japan employees will move to the new organization, which will be headquartered in Tokyo and supported by satellite offices in Nagoya and Osaka."
This is not the first such move by Travelport to consolidate its distribution interests in local markets. It previously bought national distribution companies in Greece in 2010 and in South Africa in 2012.