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Travelport has concluded an agreement with South
African Airways (SAA) to acquire Galileo Southern Africa, the GDS
distribution arm which the airline has been operating in the
region for the past 20 years.
Two years ago, Travelport set up a
direct Worldspan operation for travel agents in South Africa and
the acquisition of the Galileo GDS business marks the continuation
of its investment in the region and plans to extend the products
and services provided to local travel agents. The new, combined
entity will be known as Travelport Southern Africa.
As part of the agreement, a new five-year full
content agreement has been signed and will provide all
Travelport-connected travel agents with full access to SAA’s full
published fares and inventory as well as guaranteeing
functionality parity with all other distribution channels.
“We’d like to extend our thanks to SAA and the Galileo
Southern Africa team for their hard work over almost two decades,”
said Mark Meehan, managing director for Travelport Africa. “We now feel the time is right to extend our Travelport
operations in the region and provide Galileo-connected travel
agents in Southern Africa with the same direct distribution
relationship that we provide to our Worldspan subscribers. This
change to our business model will enable us to work directly with
all our local customers in the region to roll out relevant new GDS
services and technology. This is also a long-term investment
decision and builds on the recently expanded distributor network
we have established across much of Africa with Johannesburg as a
key regional hub.”
Theunis Potgieter, general manager of
commercial at SAA added, “I would like to thank the travel trade
in Southern Africa for its invaluable support over the last 20
years and wish all those we have worked with much success for the
future. As we focus on our airline operations, we will continue to
work closely with Travelport as a valued partner to distribute our
airfares to the global travel industry. SAA will also continue to
maintain very close relations with the travel trade in Southern
Africa. The airline wishes to thank its staff at Galileo for their
hard work and support while SAA operated Galileo Southern Africa.”
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