Amadeus put together a new unit focused on IATA’s New Distribution Capability. Called NDC-X, it’s led by Amadeus VP Gianni Pisanello. “We have been involved in NDC for quite some time,” Pisanello said. “We were the first to bring NDC into production in 2014, with United Airlines. We were waiting for a certain maturity in…
Sabre said its previously announced chatbot has gone into pilot with Travel Services International USA. Using Microsoft technology, the chatbot can help travelers with self-service support requests, allowing agents focus on more complex needs, noted Sabre Studios director Chad Callaghan. TSI clients will reach a white-label version of the chatbot through Facebook Messenger or TSI’s…
British Airways gave deadlines of this week to some U.S. travel agencies that had not signed a private channel agreement waiving its GDS surcharge. After the megas, U.K. agencies and Expedia, not every travel management company offered the deal signed up, according to sources. For agencies, agreeing to the private channel endorses a model that sacrifices GDS…
Radius Travel this week announced that CorpTrav joined its ranks. The announcement comes just as Short’s Travel Management also became part of the agency network. Based in the midwestern United States, the two travel management companies add to nine pre-existing U.S. Radius members. The largest is Travel and Transport, based in Omaha, Neb. Headquartered in…
Evercore ISI analysts are bullish on Amadeus. They like the strength of its airline IT business and expect the company to continue growing share on the GDS side. Evercore in a research report issued Jan. 4 raised its Amadeus outlook to “outperform” from “in line.” Amadeus’ gains would be losses for Sabre and Travelport, both…
World Travel Inc. established an employee stock ownership plan. A message sent Thursday to customers from chairman James Wells credited World Travel’s employees for the company’s growth into “one of the top travel management companies in the world without acquisitions.” Under an ESOP, employees receive company stock and therefore an ownership interest. Companies with ESOPs…
Concur expects to launch by February the ability to pull Airbnb listings into hotel-only search results within the Concur Travel self-booking tool. At companies that opt in, users searching for lodging as a standalone item would see Airbnb listings with pricing and some details. That includes requests using Concur’s “vicinity search.” Booking requires the user…
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