JetBlue To Provide Content To Travelport

Cendant Travel Distribution Services subsidiary Travelport yesterday announced an agreement with JetBlue Airways to provide access to the low-cost carrier’s content to its customers and Travelport resellers. The agreement makes Travelport one of two online booking tools to which JetBlue distributes content, officials said.

During today’s “The State and Future of Business Travel Distribution” discussion at Business Travel News’ 22nd annual Corporate Travel World conference in New York, Tim Luceno, manager of business development of JetBlue, said the agreement is proof that travel managers can access content through means other than global distribution systems, in which JetBlue does not participate.

“Just because the Southwests and JetBlues aren’t in the GDSs, there are many more ways to get access to our content,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is take advantage of the technology that’s out there. I think the reason this distribution discussion continues to happen is that sometimes it becomes a distraction from running an airline the way you want. There are other ways to skin a cat, not necessarily with a GDS.”

JetBlue has a similar deal in place with Concur Technologies’ Cliqbook self-booking tool.