Travelport, AA put together new deal

Travelport and American Airlines have put together a new, long-term, global distribution deal. The new agreement, along with enabling continued access to shop and book the full content of flights marketed by American Airlines, also positions Travelport to become the first global distribution system to offer access to American’s other products and services. After a period of technical integration, Travelport and American plan to use their industry-leading technology, including both Travelport’s Universal API technology and American’s XML-based direct connect interface, to deliver additional capabilities to all Travelport subscribers, including the ability to sell American’s newly introduced Main Cabin Extra seating product. Main Cabin Extra makes travel more comfortable by providing four to six inches of additional legroom and Group 1 boarding. And since Main Cabin Extra seating is close to the front of the plane, customers can get on and off the plane much faster. By making Main Cabin Extra available through global distribution systems for the first time, American is delivering on its commitment to make the travel experience more connected and comfortable from start to finish. Derek DeCross, vice president of global sales for American Airlines, commented: “Travelport deserves praise for working with American to create a solution that can display all of our product options to travel agents in a transparent, customer-friendly way that also clearly differentiates American’s products from other airlines.” Dan Westbrook, vice president and general manager of Global Distribution Sales and Service, Travelport, said: “American is an industry leader, and the perfect partner with which to build upon Travelport’s airline partnership approach to merchandising, optional ancillary sales and product differentiation. All of our subscribers will continue to access American’s full content, while American can merchandize its full line of products through Travelport, providing consumers and travellers a transparent marketplace and the ability to shop and book all services at their channel of choice.” American and Travelport also resolved all litigation between themselves. The terms of the settlement agreement require review and approval by the court presiding over AMR Corporation’s restructuring. Go to http://www.travelport.com for more.