MITCH
TRUWIT, the top official at Travelport's online holdings,
will leave the company to join a private equity firm, and
Travelport appointed Steve Barnhart president of Orbitz Worldwide
to replace Truwit. Truwit, who became president and CEO of Cendant
Travel Distribution Service's Americas Consumer Travel unit in
January 2005 and was most recently president and CEO of Orbitz
Worldwide, will join private equity firm Apax Partners in New York
as a partner by mid-October, Travelport stated. Truwit will become
an advisory member of Travelport's board of directors. Barnhart
joined Orbitz in May 2003 and was a key member of Orbitz management
when the then-airline-owned online agency went public in December
2003 prior to its purchase by Cendant, Travelport said. In addition
to his new role as president of Orbitz Worldwide, Barnhart will
continue to serve as CFO of Orbitz Worldwide, as well, Travelport
stated.
SABRE reorganized its technology team and
promoted Barry Vandevier from his post as chief technology officer
of the Travelocity unit to chief information officer of Sabre. The
CIO functions had been part of the Sabre CTO office for the past
couple of years without anyone holding the title, officials said.
"As the company has grown and become more global over the past
year-and-a-half, we consolidated several corporate technology
groups and realigned some responsibilities with a specific focus on
core enterprise systems and enterprise-wide IT governance," a
spokeswoman said. Vandevier will oversee Sabre's technology
functions, including the ongoing conversion to open systems, across
business units. In other moves, Sabre hired Robert Wiseman, a
former CTO of Cendant Travel Distribution Services, as Sabre CTO.
Wiseman, who began his Sabre tenure in May as chief architect, will
replace Craig Murphy, who plans to retire in 2007, Sabre said. The
company also announced the appointment of Sara Garrison as senior
vice president of products and system delivery. Garrison most
previously worked for Visa subsidiary Inovant as senior vice
president of network and open systems.
TRX and its partner, E2E SerWiz Solutions,
signed a long-term agreement with Japan Airlines to provide
transaction-processing services and phone and e-mail customer
support for the airline's North America Web site at www.jal.com/en. TRX
will provide its Correx and Tranxact solutions for applications
including "automated quality control, ticketing, schedule changes,
exception processing and paper ticket distribution," the companies
said. And SWS, part of Indian conglomerate Tata Sons, will provide
the phone and e-mail customer-care support for the Web site. The
agreement provides substance to the TRX-SWS relationship,
inaugurated in November 2005, which has the two companies marketing
their disparate services globally. TRX left the customer care/call
center business on an operational basis and transferred its
customer-care assets in Parkersburg, W.Va., and Milton, Fla., to
SWS in April. That followed TRX's decision in 2004 to shut call
centers it ran in Paris and Zurich. Today, SWS, on a subcontractor
basis, handles customer care for TRX's U.S. customers.
EXPEDIA
INC. AND UNITED penned a five-year agreement that "gives
Expedia travelers greater access to United's fares, schedules and
inventory," the companies said. The "strategic partnership" means
Expedia.com
and affiliate sites get access to the airline's published
inventory, and United will take advantage of Expedia's "online
travel expertise, broad reach and targeted merchandising
opportunities," the companies said.
Online agencies, such as Expedia.com, get airline inventory from
GDS partners but then negotiate additional one-on-one agreements
with airlines that cover such issues as commissions, overrides and
content.
Technology
Editor:
Dennis
Schaal
Phone: (201) 902-1904
[email protected]
For promotional
opportunities in the E-letters, contact [email protected].