Air Asia and Travelport have announced a deal that will see the airline distribute all of its fares and ancillary services through the GDS platform for the first time.
The agreement means Travelport-connected agents will be able to search and book fares and popular ancillaries such as checked-in bags, advanced seat selection and in-flight meals offered by all airlines under the AirAsia group.
The news follows Ryanair’s decision earlier this month to sell through a GDS system for the first time in more than a decade. The no-frills carrier will solely distribute its content through Travelport in a “phased approach”, which started last week.
The deal also sees Air Asia sign up to Travelport’s Merchandising Platform which includes an aggregated shopping functionality enabling booking agents to shop, compare and book flights alongside those from existing carriers.
Travelport’s managing director of global distribution sales and services, said: “We look forward to helping Air Asia extend their distribution channel while providing more in-demand, low-cost air content to our 67,000 travel agency subscribers worldwide.
“The Travelport Merchandising Platform offers us the flexibility to connect to the GDS channel and enables us to distribute our low fares to even more travellers as we continue to expand our offering,” said Air Asia Group, CEO, Tony Fernandes.
AirAsia.com