Travelport's first dedicated country manager for Germany, Juergen Witte, started work on Monday. The parent company of the Galileo and Worldspan global distribution systems said it created the one-market role as a result of recently becoming the second-largest GDS in the country.
Witte previously was Germany and Austria manager for the online travel agency ebookers.com. His predecessor, Chris Dorner, also had responsibility for Switzerland, where Travelport is market leader. Dorner will retain his Swiss role.
In July 2009, Travelport managing director and president for Europe and Brazil Olaf Gueldner told
EuroBTN his company had achieved double-digit marketshare in Germany for the first time. Much of this success was a reaction to Lufthansa effectively surcharging travel agents €4.90 from January 2008 to use runaway market leader Amadeus. However, the surcharge has now disappeared after Lufthansa and Amadeus
unexpectedly announced a new agreement on Dec. 23.