Travelport and American Airlines report a new long-term, global distribution agreement and resolution of the long standing litigation between the two firms. In addition to enabling continued access to shop and book the full content of flights marketed by American Airlines, the new agreement positions Travelport to become the first global distribution system to offer access to American's other products and services.
American and Travelport also said they resolved all litigation between them. The terms of the settlement agreement require review and approval by the court presiding over AMR Corporation's restructuring. American is a subsidiary of AMR.
Travelport and American said they plan to use their technology, including both Travelport's Universal API technology and American's XML-based direct connect interface, to deliver additional capabilities to all Travelport subscribers. This including the ability to sell American's newly introduced Main Cabin Extra seating product.
Main Cabin Extra provides four to six inches of additional legroom and Group 1 boarding. Main Cabin Extra is available through global distribution systems for the first time.
"Travelport deserves praise for working with American to create a solution that can display all of our product options to travel agents in a transparent, customer-friendly way that also clearly differentiates American's products from other airlines," said Derek DeCross, vice president of global sales for American Airlines.
Dan Westbrook, vice president and general manager of Global Distribution Sales and Service, Travelport, said, "American is an industry leader, and the perfect partner with which to build upon Travelport's airline partnership approach to merchandizing, optional ancillary sales and product differentiation."
"All of our subscribers will continue to access American's full content, while American can merchandize its full line of products through Travelport, providing consumers and travelers a transparent marketplace and the ability to shop and book all services at their channel of choice," Westbrook said.
Visit www.travelport.com