m-Travel.com and Travel Distribution News

Archive Category: Web travel

AARP, Travelocity announce partner network

WASHINGTON -- With a launch date of spring 2005, Travelocity has announced an agreement with AARP making Travelocity the supplier of flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, last minute getaways and dynamic packaging product for AARP's 35 million members. Travelocity described the move as further broadening its distribution of travel by becoming the supplier of flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, last minute getaways and dynamic packaging product for AARP's 35 million members.

Continue reading "AARP, Travelocity announce partner network"

Online travel alumni create Google-like site

Like Yahoo!'s Farechase, a new online travel venture called Kayak.com is now in beta testing. According to ClickZ News, Kayak.com crawls a wide variety of 60 travel providers' sites and presents the results in a matrix. Veterans of Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia have teamed to launch a new travel search company, Kayak.com, a public beta of which launched this week. Executives say it will possess Google-like objectivity, Amazon.com-like personalization features and an Overture-like ad auction model, when it launches officially later this year. Kayak is part of a new generation of online travel companies that are more like search technology players than travel agencies.

Continue reading "Online travel alumni create Google-like site"

Sabre Airline Solutions reports record online sales

SOUTHLAKE, Texas -- Sabre Airline Solutions reports today that the dollar value of airline tickets booked through SabreSonic Web now tops $250 million per month. This represents nearly 80 percent growth of total SabreSonic Web bookings from March 2003 through March 2004. By the end of 2004, Sabre Airline Solutions expects the dollar value of tickets booked through SabreSonic Web to exceed $3 billion, and the number of tickets booked to exceed 9.5 million.

Continue reading "Sabre Airline Solutions reports record online sales"

Worldspan offers LeisureLink vacation rentals

ATLANTA -- In a first by one of the big four global travel distribution systems (GDS), Worldspan is going to integrate vacation rental properties from LeisureLink listings. Worldspan said that online and traditional travel agencies will be able to easily distinguish these high end vacation homes on the same availability display screen as hotel inventory.

Continue reading "Worldspan offers LeisureLink vacation rentals"

Opodo CEO sees more consolidation in online travel

LONDON -- There will be further consolidation of the online travel industry and it is inevitable in Europe the Pan-European companies will be the winners, said Opodo.com CEO David Scowsill in a keynote address at EyeforTravel's European Travel Distribution Summit. "Pure nationals will operate in niches, but cannot play globally," Scowsill said.

"Consolidation, for both the leisure and corporate travel players, has been the name of the game over the last 12 months, as we have seen a spate of acquisitions and mergers and the US," he said.

Continue reading "Opodo CEO sees more consolidation in online travel"

Text of speech by Opodo CEO David Scowsill

David Scowsill, CEO of Opodo.com, gave the opening keynote address at EyeforTravel's European Travel Distribution Summit, attended by 1,000 managers and executives from all sectors of the travel industry. Opodo is owned by nine of Europe's leading airlines: Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM and Lufthansa and by leading Global Distribution System (GDS) and travel industry technology provider, Amadeus.

Opodo.com offers travelers online travel service for world travel, with access to flights from 400 airlines, 34,000 hotel properties, charter flights, city breaks, package holidays and a worldwide fleet of hire cars, as well as travel insurance and airport parking.

Continue reading "Text of speech by Opodo CEO David Scowsill"

Older traveler market to show largest growth in 2004

LONDON -- The older traveler segment of the European travel market will have the largest growth this year with an expected increase of 33%, according to the latest Travel Index from Opodo.com, the Pan-European online travel company. The survey also found that online travel agencies expect to grow by 23% this year, with specific increases for tour operators, online hotel bookings and dynamic packaging. More than a third of respondents (35%) also believe that corporate business travel will return to the levels last seen in 2000.

Continue reading "Older traveler market to show largest growth in 2004"

Amadeus launches low fare Web search engine

MADRID -- Amadeus has announced the launch of Master Pricer with the claim that it is the first online, low fare search engine that consistently covers worldwide itineraries. Master Pricer is designed to respond to the needs of large-scale travel portals operating in a highly competitive and increasingly price sensitive online marketplace.

Continue reading "Amadeus launches low fare Web search engine "

Low-cost European Web fare service launched

LONDON -- Rosenbluth International, the world's third largest travel management company, today introduced a technology-driven solution to end the confusion resulting from the rapid rise and increased usage of Internet fares and low-cost carrier bookings amongst the world's corporate business travelers.

Continue reading "Low-cost European Web fare service launched"

Travelogia, QIXO offer airfare search product

IRVINE, Calif. -- TraveLogia.com, the newest entrant in the online travel market, has launched a comprehensive one-stop travel Web site offering all free online members access to the "lowest travel deals on the Web," many of which the company says are not available through other travel sites.

Continue reading "Travelogia, QIXO offer airfare search product"

Consumers Union finds travel Web sites confusing

YONKERS, N.Y. -- A report on the Internet travel industry "exposing the changing and confusing nature of the Web's single largest commerce category" has been released by Consumer WebWatch, a Consumers Union non-profit research project with the stated mission to improve the credibility of online content. 

Continue reading "Consumers Union finds travel Web sites confusing"

Sabre and Yahoo! strengthen relationship

Sabre and Yahoo! today announced that Yahoo!, Sabre, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Travelocity, have entered into a long-term strategic alliance. The new agreement elevates the scope of Travelocity's current relationship with Yahoo! to a major alliance by including an extensive marketing services program, and by making services from Yahoo!'s Enterprise Solutions division available to Sabre. 

Continue reading "Sabre and Yahoo! strengthen relationship"

American Airlines redesigns its Web site

FORT WORTH, Texas -- First launched in 1995, the American Airlines Web site has undergone a complete redesign with new features and user-friendly navigation. The new AA.com uses the booking engine from Orbitz, the online travel sales site founded and financed by five large airline companies in response to the success of online travel sites such as Travelocity and Expedia.

Continue reading "American Airlines redesigns its Web site"

Retirement for Travelocity CEO Jones announced

SOUTHLAKE, Texas -- The retirement, immediate departure and replacement of Terrell C. Jones, 53, as CEO of Travelocity was announced today, but it was not much of a surprise. Last month, Sabre completed buying those shares of Travelocity that it did not already own, a move that Jones had fought unsuccessfully in the board room, and he was a defendant in a stockholders' law suit.

Continue reading "Retirement for Travelocity CEO Jones announced"

Online travel traffic surges 12% in March

NEW YORK — Nielsen//NetRatings reports that traffic to online travel destinations surged 12% to 51.2 million surfers in March, as compared to 45.9 million in February. Surfers at home and work flocked to the Web to take advantage of early spring airfare promotions and special vacation packages. Nearly 43% of all Web surfers accessed an online travel site in March, as compared to 39% the month prior.

Continue reading "Online travel traffic surges 12% in March"

Travelocity ranked best by business travelers

FORT WORTH, Texas --Travelocity.com has been ranked as the best Web site for business travelers booking travel, as well as the best Internet resource for booking hotels and flights for the third time in four years, according to a survey of Business Traveler magazine readers.

Continue reading "Travelocity ranked best by business travelers"

Vivendi, USA Networks deal stalls Expedia sale

NEW YORK -- While most of the focus was on film and television assets, the US$10.3 billion deal this week between media giants Vivendi Universal and USA Networks also impacts the online travel industry and holds interesting promises for mobile commerce.

Continue reading "Vivendi, USA Networks deal stalls Expedia sale"

Online travel advertising soars despite slump

NEW YORK -- Despite a major setback after the September 11 terrorist attacks, online travel advertising soared in 2001. According to data from Jupiter Media Metrix' AdRelevance service, online advertising for the travel industry began a sharp increase the second week of May 2001 with 291.9 million impressions and peaked in the fourth week of August with 1.1 billion impressions, a 263% increase. 

Continue reading "Online travel advertising soars despite slump"