Travelport announced that it has renewed its multiyear agreement with United Airlines. As part of the agreement, Travelport will continue to provide travel agencies around the world with real-time access to United’s wide selection of travel content, products and services.
Travelport, according to the announcement, will also continue to collaborate closely with the carrier to support United’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) initiatives to deliver “a world-class, modern travel retail experience.”
Simplified access to United’s NDC content and servicing capabilities was launched several months ago with a successful early adopter program and is anticipated to be available to all of Travelport’s agency customers this month. With this extended rollout, Travelport-connected agencies will be able to easily search, compare and book United’s NDC offers, as well as service NDC bookings, including modifications and cancellations.
While all Travelport customers will have access to United’s NDC content, agents using Travelport+ will be able to access a wide range of United’s rich content, fares and unique offerings all in one place, enhanced by the Content Curation Layer (CCL). This Travelport+ feature, according to the company, minimizes manual tasks using artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities to give agents and travelers a more modern retailing experience with faster search responses, more relevant results and greater accuracy.
Jason Clarke, chief commercial officer, travel partners at Travelport, said the company “is laser-focused on modern retailing and making new content sources, like NDC, easier for travel agents.” The partnership with United, he said, provides a streamlined booking experience with simplified access to United’s dynamic offers and ancillaries to Travelport’s agency network anytime, anywhere.
Travelport also announced that NDC content from British Airways is now live on the Travelport+ platform.