Travelport GDS, one of the world’s leading global distribution system (GDS) providers, announced the signing of a new agreement with TravelSky, the only GDS licensed in China to make reservations for Chinese domiciled airlines, to provide its 6,500 travel agents in China with greater global connectivity. Under the terms of the agreement, TravelSky will implement Travelport’s Reservation Sales Solution (RSS) allowing its travel agents to seamlessly access, make reservations and issue e-tickets on a wide range of global airlines in real-time via Travelport’s Galileo GDS.

The first phase of the implementation took place successfully in May enabling more than 200 Galileo-linked airlines to issue interline e-tickets with the leading Chinese airlines for which TravelSky provides reservations systems. This was in line with IATA’s mandate to achieve 100% e-ticketing by June 1, 2008. Phase two of the project is scheduled for completion by the end of this year and will provide enhanced functionality such as interactive seat maps and reservations to TravelSky travel agents.

“We are extremely pleased to have signed this new agreement with TravelSky, further strengthening our relationship with this important player in the Chinese travel industry,” said Brad Holman, President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Travelport GDS. “The provision of Travelport technology and innovative solutions are enabling us to assist TravelSky in the delivery of a world class distribution platform. This in turn enables TravelSky to deliver significant service enhancements to both Chinese travel agencies and to international airlines seeking to sell their products in the rapidly growing Chinese outbound market.”

“We look forward to the full implementation of the Travelport RSS which will not only offer enriched content and greater connectivity to our travel agents, but will also allow us to perform interline e-ticketing functions for non-BSP carriers, significantly enhancing overall operational efficiencies for TravelSky travel agents,” said Huang Peng, Chief Marketing Officer of TravelSky.

Travelport’s Galileo RSS is a practical solution for airlines requiring extended connectivity with other carriers, and is particularly useful for setting up and executing interline agreements between carriers using electronic ticketing. With Galileo RSS, such connections can be done rapidly and at a fraction of the cost of the airline having to set up individual links with each carrier it wishes to exchange passengers with. Galileo RSS enables airline customers to access, book and ticket the services of any of the 500 airlines available in real-time through Travelport’s Galileo GDS with whom they do business using just one interface and connection.