MONTREAL — Travelport and Air Canada have signed a multi-year extension agreement that provides Travelport’s travel agency customers with continued access to the full range of Air Canada’s innovative à-la-carte fare and Fight Pass products and product attributes.
Air Canada content will remain a key component of the Travelport Agencia desktop platform utilizing ac2u, Air Canada’s direct-connect application programming interface (API).
Christopher Engle, vice president, Airline Services for The Americas stated, “Travelport’s Agencia desktop, which provides Canadian agents with access to Air Canada’s merchandising efforts, is a prime example of Travelport’s ability to work with airlines such as Air Canada to innovate distribution technology.” Added Engle, “This agreement makes clear Travelport is executing its merchandising strategy: to enable airlines to distribute their fares and ancillary content in a manner they choose; to do so through the travel agency channel and; to do it in a way that protects the integrity and efficiency of the GDS booking and management process for travel agents.”
Air Canada’s senior director, Distribution and Consumer Direct, Graham Wareham, stated that, “through the strength of the partnership, Air Canada and Travelport have successfully extended their agreement creating long term stability for Travelport-connected travel agents in Canada. This agreement enables full Air Canada content to extend throughout the Travelport global system.”
The Travelport Agencia desktop solution enables its Canadian agency customers to shop, price and book all Air Canada domestic, U.S. transborder and international itineraries and fares including Tango, Flex, Latitude and Executive, as well as the capability to book and manage Air Canada’s Corporate Rewards and complete range of Flight Pass products. Travelport Agencia provides Travelport customers à-la-carte pricing with the ability to select product attributes they wish to pay for, such as advance seat assignment on the lowest Tango fares, onboard meals and lounge access.
According to Maurita Baker, general manager, Travelport Canada, “We are extremely pleased that through this new agreement, Travelport continues to offer agents booking via Agencia three strong advantages. First, they will find the lowest available Tango fares – fares that are in some cases significantly lower than those found in any other GDS. Second, Tango fares booked in Agencia are commissionable but those booked in the GDS are not. And last but certainly not least, agents booking via Agencia have access not only to all of Air Canada’s fares and products but to over 350 additional carriers in an agent-friendly intuitive workflow including the auto-creation of PNRs.”
For more information on Travelport Agencia, visit: travelport.com/Products/Travelport-Agencia.