Product news, releases, projects and more from the global distribution systems during February 2012 – all here, in one easy read.

Most recent updates first…

Thursday 24 February 2012:

• Travelport signs new distribution agreements with Lufthansa and Swiss International Airlines. The pair have new multi-year partnerships with Travelport, giving all Galileo and Worldspan-connected agents access to full published content from the carriers. In addition, GDS surcharges will be waived for agencies based in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
• Amadeus fourth quarter and full-year 2011 results – at-a-glance summary
• Southwest Airlines decision on Sabre or Amadeus for reservations system? Goes for extension with Sabre
• Web will never beat offline travel agents – impact is just a flesh wound
• Will the American Airlines Jetstream reservations system ever fly?
• Traveller search and booking timeline highlights significant country differences

Wednesday 22 February 2012:

• Travelport enhances technology services for Yemenia, the national airline for Yemen. The agreement follows a recent multi-year, full-content distribution deal with the airline, giving Travelport GDS agents access to real-time connectivity, inventory as well as seat maps, last-seat availability and pricing. E-ticketing tools are also now available, alongside enhanced PNR services.
• Abacus begins rolling out PowerSuite tool. Connected-agencies will be able to run its tour management module as well as mid-office functions for bookings, sales and insurance products. The platform is also available in remote mode, meaning travel organisers can manage services on-the-go.
• Travellers from emerging markets frustrated by online travel experience
• FairSearch brings its anti-Google campaign to Europe, uses old Microsoft foe to lead operations
• Ryanair takes legal action against Budget Travel for screen-scraping

Tuesday 21 February 2012:

• Travelport signs distribution deal with Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori (NTV), an Italian high-speed rail operator. NTV fares and availability will be available to all Galileo-connected agents in Italy and elsewhere around the world. The operator is the first private high-speed service to launch in Italy.
• Amadeus gives Finnair push with ancillary products in Northern Europe. The partnership through the Amadeus Ancillary Services tool gives passengers to book preferred seats in Scandinavia, Finland and Benelux countries. The service will work through both Amadeus-connected agencies as well as Finnair’s direct channels.

Monday 20 February 2012:

• Amadeus appoints Scott Alvis to newly created position of chief marketing officer for North America. Alvis was previously senior vice president for client management in the airline IT and distribution division, joining in March 2010. Prior to Amadeus, Alvis president and general manager of SynXis, a business unit of Sabre Holdings. Based in Chicago, Alvis will report into Scott Gutz, president and CEO of Amadeus North America.
• Middle East hotel prices – February to April 2012
• Global Hotel Exchange promises a revolution, transparent and market prices to consumers
• Who is so far feeling the heat from Google Flight Search? No major surprises here
• Is mobile the biggest technology challenge facing the travel industry?

Thursday 16 February 2012:

• Travelport has announced the transition of former-president and CEO Jeff Clarke from executive chairman to non-executive chairman. Clarke will continue to serve as a member of the board’s executive committee and new member of the company’s audit committee and compensation committee. The filing to the SEC in the US disclosed Clarke’s own compensation: $250,000 per year as non-executive chairman.
• Emirates deploys Rapid Reprice (and Select) system from Travelport. The system sits within the carrier’s website and allows passengers to manage bookings and alter travel plans. The Select version of the system gives Emirates the ability to serve alternatives to passengers based on fares, taxes, change penalties or fees.
• Abacus signs two-year distribution agreement with Pacific Royale Airways, a new carrier based in Indonesia. Fares and inventory from the airline, which is due to fly for the first time in March 2012, will be made available to all Abacus-connected agents. Pacific Royale has been granted permits to service 81 routes, a third of which will be to destinations outside of Indonesia such as India, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
• Amadeus outage caused by technical failure during upgrades at Erding data centre
• Rearden Commerce deems a decade of Big Data worth crunching to enhance flight search
• Three reasons why the evolution in travel payment functions cannot be ignored
• Tnooz-BCD Travel Webinar VIDEO: Getting in sync – Tools for communicating with business travelers

Tuesday 14 February 2012:

• Rezdy brings reservation tools to burgeoning tour and activity sector
• How to combine the off and online worlds in the hotel industry
• How to optimise the mobile travel experience

Thursday 9 February 2012:

• Travelport and Bangkok Airways agree new multi-year distribution agreement. The deal gives Galileo and Worldspan-connected agents access to fares and inventory from the regional carrier, operating on 20 domestic and international routes.
• Amadeus and Conferma unite to launch automated hotel payment service. The billback support system, powered by Conferma, automates the need for travel managers to manually process hotel payments when booking through Amadeus.
• Vayant goes sub-second with new flight search technology
• Have travel agents been left high and dry by mobile?
• Who is driving evolution of business travel technology? The end-user, not tech companies
• Personality crisis: Am I an airline or a travel retailer?

Monday 6 February 2012:

• Sabre introduces an Eco-Certified Hotel Programme for the GDS. The system works by highlighting more than 4,700 hotels which are certified by globally recognised bodies as being “environmentally-responsible”. Sabre systems Red and Hotel RFP will be displaying the mark to 180,000 and 2,000 users respectively.  Sabre says it will “hold the line” against so-called greenwashing by accommodation providers by only including hotels in the system which have been audited for their eco-friendliness against Global Sustainable Tourism Council guidelines.
• Gullivers founder David Babai returns with group trip wholesaler G2 Travel
• Travelport debuts ViewTrip mobile trip management tool in UK, global roll-out to follow
• Asia hotel prices – February to April 2012

Friday 3 February 2012:

• Amadeus brings in former Wyndham executive to become vice president of hotels. Jeff Edwards will be charged with expanding the Amadeus hnotel division, covering both distribution and IT services. Prior to Wyndham, where he was chief information officer and EVP of distribution, Edwards was president and CEO of Micros Fidelio. He joins the new business wing of Amadeus alongside Thomas Drexler for rail and John Jarrell for airport IT.
• Guestmob uses Big Data to try and reinvent the opaque hotel booking model
• Bespoke travel trend pushes payment out of traditional reservation systems
• New distribution channels – Google Travel, Facebook, Apple and … Pinterest?

Wednesday 1 February 2012:

• Amadeus has bought airline strategy consultancy Airconomy. The deal, for an undisclosed fee, sees the Frankfurt-based company run as a separate business incubator to “develop ideas for new market intelligence reports”. The acquisition follows a deal struck with Airconomy in July 2010 to launch business intelligence platform to help carriers plan and develop networks.
• Travelport research shows agent confusion in airline ancillary market
• Five of the most important things every travel brand should be doing right now
• Europe rail distribution evolving as SilverRail and Pharos Datacom sign big deals
• Amadeus outage hit other GDSs as airline systems crashed

Previous GDS updates:

• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – January 2012
• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – December 2011
• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – November 2011
• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – October 2011
• GDS news from Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – September 2011
• GDS news: Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – August 2011
• GDS news: Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus – July 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – June 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – May 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – April 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – March 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – February 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – January 2011
• Travelport, Amadeus, Sabre, Abacus briefs – December 2010
• GDS Bitesize – January 2010 to November 2010