Both Amadeus and Galileo have revealed further details following today”s (5 November) announcement that easyJet has brokered distribution deals with the duo.
Amadeus and Galileo have separately delivered new technology to connect each GDS directly to easyJet”s inventory, allowing travel agents, for the first time to make bookings on the airline within their everyday workflow and channel.
”Our role is to bring content as integral to the existing process and we have made a technological breakthrough with easyJet,” said Amadeus vice president multinational customer group, Gillian Gibson.
”Amadeus is the world”s largest GDS and we distribute around two-thirds of business travel around Europe. It is real-time availability and we started piloting in October with a launch [later] in November.”
Those pilots took place in Germany, France, Spain and the UK, with easyJet flights available to all eligible agencies worldwide. Galileo will also feature easyJet services in the UK by year-end and the rest of Europe in the New Year.
”By definition, the broader range of content, the better for consumers,” said Galileo managing director EMEA & Brazil, Bryan Conway. ”Today, 36% of short-haul traffic goes through low-cost airlines and 1% is on GDS.
”There is a tremendous utilisation of GDS by corporate travel agents and the opportunity for easyJet can be compared to JetBlue, which has seen GDS participation at $100m this year, of which 66% is new custom with a lot of high-yield.”
Distribution through Amadeus and Galileo is specifically targeting travel agencies specialising in business travel and easyJet will apply a point-of-sale fee to the cost of the airfare.