Travelport signs deals in Russia

Travelport GDS has signed a series of deals in Russia and the CIS as part of a multi-million dollar investment across Eastern Europe.

The GDS provider, which operates the Galileo and Worldspan platforms, has identified major growth potential within the region.

It has signed an accreditation deal with TCH, Russia’s settlement services system, which will allow Galileo users to issue TCH e-tickets for the first time in Russia and beyond. This was only previously possible through the local GDS providers operating in the region.

It has also struck a deal with aviation IT specialist, SITA, to provide thousands of sales and travel agents across the region with access to extensive new airline content using Travelport’s Reservation Sales Solution (RSS).

In addition to other travel agency and airline content agreements signed over the last 12 months, Travelport has also announced funding for a new Galileo training programme, in partnership with JSC VIP Service, and a letter of intent signed with AlpOnline to provide all Galileo-connected users in Russia and the CIS with rich new tour operator content.

Travelport GDS is focusing on expanding its presence in Russia as well as the surrounding Eastern European markets of Hungary, Romania, Poland and the Czech Republic.

“We take the view that the way forward in Russia is not to try to impose the way things work in Western Europe but to work on the ground with our customers to really help them to grow their businesses,” said Niklas Andréen, managing director for Travelport GDS, Eastern Europe.

“The Russian travel marketplace is truly unique and, over the last 12 months, following feedback from our customers, we have been very focussed on developing regional partnerships with key Russian organisations such as TCH and JSC VIP Service to enable us to deliver highly valuable local support.

“We have also been investing in the recruitment of a regionally based team dedicated to meeting the needs of our Russian customers. We aim to prove that we think and act differently to the competition.”

Source: TravelMole