Travel management company Travel and Transport has fully acquired global travel agency network Radius Travel, having completed the process over the past few years of buying out the network's other two owners. As Radius Travel president and CEO Shannon Hyland moves to his new title of SVP of global services for Travel and Transport, he said it "first and foremost will be business as usual." Radius will maintain its global headquarters in Bethesda, Md. The network of more than 100 partner agencies around the world also will globalize some of Travel and Transport's technology and tools, he said.
"We certainly are going to be in a position to better leverage Travel and Transport's scale now that we are a subsidiary, and it will better position us with suppliers and third-party technology providers," Hyland said. "Our place in the industry is more fortified."
Travel and Transport CEO Kevin O'Malley said investments would focus on "proprietary Travel and Transport tools," including "what we can do as far as creating more commonality on the platform, aggregating content and solving [the International Transport Association's New Distribution Capability standard] as it continues to evolve."
Radius over the years has moved away from its original business model. The shareholder model, in which all members had a share in the company, had become "a bit unwieldy to manage." In 2011, a large investment consolidated more than 80 percent of Radius to three owners: Travel and Transport, India-based Cox & Kings and U.K.-based Portman Travel. Travel and Transport has been working toward full ownership of Radius since 2015. It completed the buyout of Cox & Kings' shares last month and had bought Portman's shares a few years prior; Portman merged with Clarity Travel Management in 2016.
Hyland said Travel and Transport was "the most obvious candidate" for sole ownership, as it "has had a longtime interest in Radius as a shareholder and member and has been a very successful company and will continue to be a successful company for years going forward." He continued: "As we were working on our strategic plan in 2015, we saw what was going on in the industry, which continues to go on today: the incredible pace of consolidation, with suppliers getting more scale. We thought it would be in our best interest, to make sure Radius would continue to thrive 10 years down the road, to align with a TMC."
Following the acquisition, Radius promoted chief commercial officer Kieran Hartwell to president.