Cendant Travel Distribution Services (TDS), a division of Cendant Corporation and a provider of technology and distribution solutions for the travel industry, has announced the creation of a centralised air buying team in the UK. This dedicated organisation will deliver significant benefits to airlines by giving them a central point of contact for commercial and contracting activities for Travel 2 Travel 4, ebookers, Travelbag and interline bookers to provide multi-channel on and off-line distribution of their products.

In today’s intensely competitive travel industry, airlines are looking for partners who are innovative retailers, ready to open up new revenue streams through a variety of comprehensive inventory distribution options. Cendant recognises this demand, and via its retail brands such as ebookers, Travel 2 Travel 4 and Travelbag, is in a unique position to offer airlines these revenue opportunities easily and efficiently, as well as providing additional opportunities through its enterprise-wide content providers like gta and OctopusTravel.

The centralised air buying team will be led by business development directors David Gibbs and Laura Lukan, following their arrival from Travel 2 Travel 4 and Travelocity respectively. Both have vast knowledge and experience of the airline business and the challenges faced by their customers

“I am delighted to be able to provide our airline partners with this dedicated, specialist team,” commented Matthew Hall, Vice President, Airline Business Development, EMEA. “Their focus is to develop agreements that create a win/win situation for both parties; airlines get the widest possible distribution and new revenue opportunities and Cendant continues to play a pivotal role in travel distribution. Working with the airlines we have been able to sign excellent deals as individual companies over the past few years, however, as a single entity, we are in a much better position to demonstrate our relevance and to deliver benefits to our partners.”

“After successfully working with these individual companies for many years, it is great to see the creation of a single team that will simplify our dealings with Cendant and allow us truly to benefit from the combined Cendant TDS proposition. We are pleased to see Cendant taking this lead and hope that other organisations can follow suit, as this is clearly a more effective way of working,” Commented Simon Spinks, Director of Sales KLM.