CHICAGO -- When Navigant International and other agents access the Orbitz database through Navigant subsidiary Aqua Software, they will be able to utilize the ITA Software fare search engine.

The use of the rigorous ITA engine grew out of Orbitz and Cambridge, Mass.-based ITA extending their licensing agreement through 2007.

Previously, ITA licensed its technology to Orbitz only for Orbitz.com. The extended agreement means that Orbitz can use the technology for its own site as well as in deals with travel agencies, corporations and non-airline suppliers, said ITA chief executive Jeremy Wertheimer.

"Now it's for everybody except airlines," said Wertheimer, referring to the parameters of the new pact with Orbitz.

Orbitz.com uses ITA for domestic fares and flight searches, and Worldspan, which powers the Orbitz booking engine, for international itineraries. The PC-based ITA technology has been widely lauded because it is comprehensive, fast and scaleable.

Navigant agents will soon be testing direct access to the Orbitz database and Aqua plans to sell the technology to other agencies.

Wertheimer said ITA technology is flexible and can be customized for agents, although he didn't know Orbitz's plans on that issue.

"It's a capability that will now be available to agents," Wertheimer said. "It could be a very dramatic thing."

An Orbitz spokeswoman would only say that "travel agents who book using Aqua will be provided a direct link to Orbitz's booking engine of most low fares."

In signing the extended licensing agreement with Orbitz, it is believed that ITA was competing with the Worldspan ePricing engine that the GDS developed with Expedia.