May 22, 2012 - 09:20 AM ET

Travelport announced a multi-year full-content deal with Avianca and Taca, subsidiaries of Latin America's AviancaTaca Holding S.A. Under the agreement, agents connected to the Galileo, Apollo or Worldspan global distribution systems will have "complete, global access to the group’s best publicly available fare inventory," according to Travelport. Travelport also said it struck a technology services deal with the airlines, including deployment of Travelport Rapid Reprice "across multiple distribution channels, fully automating the manual process of repricing and reissuing airline tickets when passenger itineraries change."

May 21, 2012 - 01:50 PM ET

EasyJet expanded its participation in the Sabre GDS so that "more agencies connected to Sabre will have access to inventory for the first time," according to a Sabre announcement. Sabre agents also "will soon be able to take advantage of EasyJet's allocated seating trial, which is currently running on selected routes across the network. This allows passengers to reserve their preferred seat on the aircraft at the time of booking." The new agreement, like its predecessor, is in line with easyJet's distribution model that levies per-segment fees for GDS bookings.

May 16, 2012 - 03:30 PM ET

Travel Leaders Corporate hired American Express veteran Angie Licea to serve as senior vice president of business operations and technology development, replacing Stephen Thomas-Shulere, who last year left the company to join Balboa Travel. According to Travel Leaders, Licea's 25-year travel industry career has included management positions at Amex and Rosenbluth International and stints at Thomas Cook and US Airways. She reports to Travel Leaders Corporate president David Holyoke and in an expanded role is tasked with "driving process improvement and increasing the operational efficiency and overall effectiveness of the company."

May 16, 2012 - 09:45 AM ET

Amadeus became the first GDS user of daily airline schedule transmissions from OAG, which has been providing about one-third of Amadeus' flight schedules. "This enables travel agents and their customers to access more accurate information when they're looking to book a flight—a major competitive advantage for any global distribution system," according to John Grant, executive vice president for networks at UBM Aviation, parent company of OAG. OAG "processes up to 50,000 airline schedule-change messages per day," according to a press statement that also noted carriers can file schedules themselves directly with Amadeus.

May 10, 2012 - 03:30 PM ET

Total U.S. travel agency air transactions processed through ARC in April 2012 decreased by 0.4 percent year over year, the smallest of three consecutive monthly declines. Total April air sales, including fares, taxes and fees, after marginally retreating in February and March, increased by 5.8 percent over April 2011 levels. Domestic U.S. airfare sales increased 5.5 percent but transactions fell by 2.2 percent. The situation was reversed for international flights as transactions rose by 4 percent while fare sales dropped 0.9 percent. ARC also reported that total passenger segments for the first four months of 2012 increased 0.9 percent year over year.

May 10, 2012 - 10:25 AM ET

GDS industry bookings in April kept up a 4.6 percent year-over-year rate of increase enjoyed during the first quarter, but April growth in the Americas was more sluggish at under 1 percent, according to Travelport executives. The officials were speaking with analysts about Travelport's March quarter results, including a 3.5 percent increase in Americas segments booked. Europe fell 1.9 percent and the company's smaller Middle East-Africa and Asia-Pacific regions grew by 5.7 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively. Overall Travelport segments increased 2.4 percent to 98 million in the quarter. Travelport narrowed its net loss in the March quarter to $11 million from $23 million a year earlier on 4 percent higher revenues of $550 million.

May 10, 2012 - 10:10 AM ET

More than 1,000 Starwood Hotels & Resorts properties now can be booked through China's TravelSky after the government-owned global distribution system completed a connection with hotel distribution technology supplier Pegasus Solutions, according to Pegasus. The connection will enable bookings through TravelSky of the nearly 100,000 total properties listed in Pegasus, with Starwood the first chain to go live.

May 09, 2012 - 12:05 PM ET

Egencia Mobile now is available as a mobile website and an Android app, in addition to its pre-existing iPhone app.

May 09, 2012 - 09:40 AM ET

Amadeus IT Holding for the quarter ending March 31 reported a 6.1 percent increase in combined air and non-air bookings versus the year-earlier period. The company also claimed a 38.2 percent global share of travel agency air bookings, up 0.9 percentage points from a year earlier. The company described the increase as "significant" and cited "both organic growth in various markets and positive region mix." Amadeus also reported an 8 percent increase in its distribution business revenues and a 10.4 percent jump in IT solutions revenues. The company's quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization improved 5.4 percent from a year earlier to €307.2 million. Overall, adjusted profit jumped 22.1 percent to €167.9 million.

May 03, 2012 - 09:40 AM ET

The General Services Administration's $1.5 billion, 15-year ETS2 contract will be awarded in June, Concur chairman and CEO Steve Singh estimated. "There's obviously been a bit of a scandal across the GSA around expense reporting and, frankly, just spending outside of policy," Singh said, referencing the federal agency's 2010 Western Regions Conference scandal, which resulted in the resignation of GSA administrator Martha Johnson. Singh cited the leadership change for the delay. The massive ETS2 travel and expense management contract, widely expected to be awarded to both Concur and a joint CWTSatoTravel/Northrop Grumman bid, previously was targeted for April. If it indeed does win a portion of the deal, Concur is not expecting revenue from it until 2014. Meanwhile, Concur on Wednesday reported "exceptionally strong" March quarter results, including revenue of $108.4 million. That came in at 28 percent higher than a year earlier, the company's "highest year-over-year growth rate since the beginning of the recession," CFO Frank Pelzer said.