This is a roundup for product news and announcements for travel DISTRIBUTION in tourism and hospitality for April 2016.
Friday 29 April 2016:
Travelport flies with Germania Swiss and Fly Blue Crane
- The airline pair both signed for Rich Content and Branding tool, part of the Travelport Merchandising Platform which gives carriers the ability to display their fares and ancillaries to agencies in the same way as they do online. Germania Swiss is the sister carrier of Germania, based in Zurich, whilst Fly Blue Crane is a new regional carrier in South Africa.
Wednesday 27 April 2016:British Airways pushes ancillaries through NDC
- Travel agencies will now be able to access services such as pre-booked additional luggage, pre-orders for meals and loyalty member benefits through the IATA NDC-enabled standard. Previously the services were only available to agencies post-booking on the airline's website.
Spring Airlines gets
Amadeus nod
- The North Asia airline's fare and schedules will be available to Amadeus-connected agencies in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau and Taiwan immediately, with other regions to follow by the end of 2016. The deal also includes use of Amadeus's Ticketless Access platform.
Travelport extends
Al Tayyar Travel Group deal
- The network of Saudi Arabia-based leisure and corporate travel agencies will be connected flights, hotels and other products through the Travelport Universal API. Clarity Travel Management and Elegant, two of the group#s brands, are part of the deal that also includes use of the Smartpoint agency desktop.
Tuesday 26 April 2016:Travelport renews Overseas Travel Bureau deal
- The new agreement with the travel travel management company, organised by Travelport's distribution partner in the Qatari state, will give it access to Travelport's platform for flight, hotel and other products. The agency was created in 1992.
Monday 25 April 2016JacTravel debuts TotalStay, a new booking portal for agents
- The hotel consolidator, acquired by a private equity firm in 2014, merged a year ago with TotalStayGroup. Agents who had been using JacHotels and ExclusivelyHOTELS to book rooms at 12,000 directly contracted hotels plus more than 90,000 other properties will now use this portal instead.
Friday 23 April 2016:DHISCO jigs with Abreu Online
- The Portugal-based travel wholesaler will connect to the DHISCO platform to offer partners real-time search and booking for hotel properties around the world. Abreu is part of the Grupo Viagens Abreu network of travel agencies, with more than 5,000 agents and tour operators on the portfolio.
Wednesday 20 April 2016:Egencia signs on for Amadeus Web Services
- Expedia Inc.’s travel management company now provides merchandising content to agencies via Amadeus Web Services. Corporate travelers can now pay for extra baggage at the time of a flight reservation. Side note: Amadeus touted a “nearly 100% growth in the sale of airline ancillary services” by travel agencies, including OTAs, in 2015.
Tuesday 19 April 2016:Travelport adds China Southern to its merchandising platform
- The carrier is the last of the four largest Chinese carriers to go live with Rich Content and Branding element of the Travelport Merchandising Platform. Travelport says more than 150 airlines are now live with its merchandising products.
Monday 18 April 2016:Renfe opts for CarTrawler
- The Spanish rail operator will use CarTrawler to power the car rental channel on its consumer-facing website, giving passengers access to pick-up points and vehicle selection, pricing and bookings at multiple locations around the country. Renfe carries around 354 million passengers a year on 5,000 daily trains.
SAS signs
Amadeus Fare Families deal
- The Scandinavian carrier will soon offer Amadeus-connected travel agencies a suite of Fare Families on its routes. The tickets will have a range of options for passengers including combinations of ancillaries and other products, with the opportunity for each to be tailored for an individual customer.
Monday 18 April 2016:Renfe opts for CarTrawler
- The Spanish rail operator will use CarTrawler to power the car rental channel on its consumer-facing website, giving passengers access to pick-up points and vehicle selection, pricing and bookings at multiple locations around the country. Renfe carries around 354 million passengers a year on 5,000 daily trains.
SAS signs
Amadeus Fare Families deal
- The Scandinavian carrier will soon offer Amadeus-connected travel agencies a suite of Fare Families on its routes. The tickets will have a range of options for passengers including combinations of ancillaries and other products, with the opportunity for each to be tailored for an individual customer.
Thursday 14 April 2016:Tripping.com says it has 2 million instantly bookable vacation rental properties
- The US-based, vacation rental search engine says that it now has "the largest onsite instantly bookable vacation rental inventory in the industry." Overall it tallies a total of 8 million rental listings in 150,000 destinations. It says it receives more than 2 million unique visitors to its platform a month.
Wednesday 13 April 2016:SiteMinder nabs FastPayHotels
- The new hotel distribution service (TLabs here), which ensures hotels are paid at the time of the customer making a booking, will join the SiteMinder Channel Manager platform. The company currently has 4,000 hotels in 21 countries on its system.
eRevMax gets instant with
TripAdvisor- The hotel distribution service will put its customers into TripAdvisor's platform, whereby users do not leave the metasearch engine element of the user review's site to make a booking. eRevmax has some 9,000 properties worldwide featured on its system.
Friday 8 April 2016:Amadeus signs UTair Aviation
- Russian carrier UTair is to use Amadeus Airline Fare Families enabling it to brand and upsell via travel agents.
Amadeus to distribute RENFE
- Spanish rail company RENFE is to distribute its rail products to travel agents via Amadeus following a deal between the two companies.
Tuesday 5 April 2016:CarTrawler partners with Shannon Airport
- CarTrawler will provide passengers to Shannon Airport with transport options including car rental, taxis and private transfer following an exclusive deal between the two companies.
EasyJet signs new agreement with
Travelport- Travelport-connected agents continue to have access to easyJet inventory via the Travel Commerce Platform following a new deal between the airline and GDS. EasyJet will also continue to use Travelport's Rich content and Branding system as part of the deal.
Rentcars partners with
GOL Airlines- Brazil-based online car-rental platform Rentcars has signed an exclusive deal to provide rentals to GOL Airlines passengers via the carrier's website.
NB: World computers image via Shutterstock.