Travelport GDS, one of the world’s largest global distribution system (GDS) providers, has signed a long-term agreement to provide Czech Airlines (CSA) with a wide-range of hosting services to support the airline with key activities such as bookings, ticketing and passenger check-in. 

The new agreement, which was signed following a competitive tender process involving all major suppliers, represents Travelport GDS’s largest European hosting agreement to date, adding to a global portfolio of airline IT partners which already includes Northwest Airlines and Delta Airlines, said an official spokesman.

The Travelport solution for CSA will be designed to increase the efficiency of current booking, ticketing and check-in processes, as well as to reduce ongoing costs and increase revenue integrity. 

The new systems will further endorse CSA’s seamless integration into the SkyTeam alliance which includes other Travelport GDS airline customers  amongst its members.

The core solution will be based on Travelport GDS’s proven Meridian technology and includes leading-edge solutions for global fares and pricing as well as the GDS provider’s interline e-ticketing technology.

Integrated e-commerce tools, which have proven successful for other airlines, such as Travelport GDS’s Rapid Reprice tool for automatically re-pricing tickets as well as its e-Pricing® tool for low-fare shopping will also be adopted by CSA.  Once implemented, the Travelport GDS hosting system will replace the 12 different sub-systems that are currently being used by the airline.  

“Travelport GDS is delighted to have signed this long-term agreement with Czech Airlines who clearly recognised the high levels of efficiency our advanced and affordable technology would bring to key areas of their business operations.  We very much look forward to working closely with the team at CSA over the coming months as we put the new service in place,” said vice-president, Global IT Services, Travelport GDS, Kevin Ficco.

“The new system from Travelport GDS will speed up all of our processes from booking through to passenger check-in and the results will be felt not just by our employees but will also very much enhance the overall CSA customer experience. We were very impressed by what the Travelport GDS team offered and we are very confident this new system will help us to grow our business over the coming years,” said communications director for CSA Daniela Hupáková.

Implementation of CSA’s Travelport GDS hosting services for reservations, ticketing and inventory services is already underway and will continue until the end of 2008 when the cutover is planned. The departure control system for check-in will be implemented in 2009 with a planned completion date of May. – TradeArabia News Service