European online travel agency Opodo has continued its expansion by moving into Spain.
The agency has set up its own website for Spain in a joint venture with a company called Rumbo which is itself a joint venture between GDS Amadeus and telecoms operator Terra Lycos.
Opodo now operates in nine markets in Europe after a period of what its ceo Simon Vincent called “aggressive growth.”
This has taken the agency from its three core countries, the UK, France and Germany, into Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Italy and now Spain.
It took control of an online company in Italy called Eviaggi and moved into the Scandinavian countries after taking control of Travellink, both in March.
Opodo was founded by nine European airlines which later sold a 55% stake in the company to Amadeus.
Lufthansa ‘set to enter low cost market'
Lufthansa is ready to enter the low cost market by offering flights from Hamburg to selected European cities for under 90, according to a report by Reuters.
The news agency said the German carrier planned to station five planes at Hamburg from next month with fares to European cities pitched between 65 and 85.
If the strategy paid off, three more planes would be added to the operation at Hamburg and possibly extended to other airports.
Hamburg is one of Germany's most popular destinations for low cost carriers with up to five operating there. Among these are Ryanair, Germanwings and Air Berlin
It quoted Lufthansa's chief financial officer Karl-Ludwig Kley as saying the airline needed an aggressive price strategy to compete with low cost carriers which planned to add a further 90 aircraft to their fleets this summer.
Lufthansa, he said, had already seen its European yields fall in the last year.