Travelport Limited, the parent company of the Travelport group of companies, has completed its $1.4-billion acquisition of Worldspan.

The deal makes Travelport one of the world's largest networks of travel brands, content and service offerings while enabling it to succeed in an increasingly competitive industry.

“With an expanded global footprint and proven track record of customer service and technology leadership, our global team will work to meet the evolving needs of our customers as a more effective and efficient travel distribution provider in a rapidly changing industry,” said Jeff Clarke, president and CEO of Travelport and chairman of Orbitz Worldwide.

The Travelport GDS division comprises the Galileo and Worldspan businesses; Shepherd Systems, an expert in the field of providing business and marketing intelligence to the travel industry; AiRes, the next generation server based internal airline IT product suite and Thor, a provider of distribution and marketing services to travel-related companies.

“We will be working on enhancements and operational efficiencies including systems integrity, fare accuracy, and ease-of-use that capitalise on the GDS knowledge and experience of Galileo and Worldspan, ” said Clarke. 

“Galileo will be enhanced by Worldspan’s online distribution technology platform, while Worldspan will benefit from Galileo’s expanded supplier base and expansive content,” said Gordon Wilson, president and CEO of the Travelport GDS division. 

“The complementary strengths of both companies will bring improved offerings for our agency and supplier customers, and we are particularly excited about the technology innovations and breadth of services we will be able to bring our suppliers and subscribers in the future,” he said.

Travelport customers can expect to benefit from innovations that will provide an enhanced shopping experience, a rapid re-price system that will reduce the cost and time of refunding and exchanging airline tickets, and additional localised content for customers globally, among other new service offerings.

Currently, more than 750 travel suppliers, 63,000 travel agencies and millions of end consumers globally benefit from the travel distribution services provided by the two organizations.  In 2006 alone, Galileo and Worldspan produced over 379 million air bookings, while operating in 145 countries and processing as many as 15,000 transactions per second. – TradeArabia News Service